Chickens in a barn

A New Year’s Resolution: Reduce Animal Products

For the animals, the planet and for you

12/19/2022

After the holidays and New Year’s Eve, festive dinners and lots of desserts, it’s time to start the new year with good intentions. However,   sometimes we lose interest in New Year’s Resolutions after short period of time.

One easy New Year’s Resolution that FOUR PAWS recommends, is to start off the year with a reduction of animal products like meat, dairy and eggs – as this make sense for three reasons: It’s beneficial for your own health, it helps the planet and the welfare of animals.

While environmentalists and physicians are increasingly pointing out the problems for our climate and health in connection to high meat and milk consumption, the ethical aspect is a focus of FOUR PAWS. Everyone can contribute to making the world a better place for animals.

Consuming a high amount of animal products negatively impacts animal welfare, the climate and our health. Ultimately, everything is connected and is influences each other. Thus, this should help us understand and get motivated to change certain dietary habits.

Read further about our 3Rs principle here.

FOUR PAWS recommends the 3Rs principle

Reduce, Refine, and Replace.

Reduce

Reduce


By reducing the amount of animal-based products like meat, dairy and eggs, less animals need to be raised, kept and slaughtered for food production.

Refine

Refine


When animal-based products are bought, one should look at the origin and choose products from higher animal welfare standards.

Replace

Replace


The most effective way to help animals is to replace animal-based products with plant-based alternatives as much as possible which is the most animal friendly option.

What is wrong with eating animals?

Most farm animals are kept in intensive farming systems and are reproduced in mass quantities. The animals are crowded together, have little space and experience continuous stress. Antibiotics are administered prophylactically. Natural patterns of behavior can be lived only partially or not at all. In order to produce meat as much as possible within a short span of time, the animals are forcibly adapted to the system until they are eventually brought to the slaughterhouse when they are only a few months old.

What is wrong with dairy?

The welfare of the animals is also affected within the intensive dairy industry. Most dairy cows do not experience open land or pastures during their entire lives. Many of them live in tethering for 365 days per year. Calves suffer greatly in the industry. Mothers and their young are separated shortly after they are born without having the opportunity of bonding or suckling.

Today's milk production comes from cows that have been bred for high-performance. The exhausted dairy cows are often slaughtered just after the age of five, while their natural life expectancy can be over 20 years. The main reason for this is fertility problems and decrease of milk production. Find out more about dairy cows here.

everyone has the power to Make a Change

FOUR PAWS is here to support you!

Recipe Ideas

Recipes


We hope these delicious ideas will support you! Try now here.

Vitamin B12

FOUR PAWS wishes you a Happy New Year!

Happy Pigs in the sunshine

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