On this dark Halloween night many kids and adults connect with what scares them. But have you ever noticed how few people dress up as slaughterhouse workers or factory farm operators?

I suspect that meat eaters don't want to think about it, and society has hidden the animals and killing floors from view.

While we spend one night fantasizing about horror, most farm animals live it everyday.

Please remember the unseen multitudes that get reared in hellish factory farms awaiting slaughter. Each year, over 650 million animals are slaughtered in Canada and a staggering 9.4 billion are butchered in the U.S.

[Image above: Modern Man Followed by the Ghosts of His Meat. ©1990 Sue Coe.]

While I didn't see any kids dressed as slaughterhouse operators last Halloween, I did come across a gruesome display of human body parts packaged in cellophane. Fortunately they were fake, unlike the real animal body parts for sale in supermarkets.

Continue reading to see a larger size of this image and more information about the number of animals killed for food each year.

The numbers slaughtered each year:

Canada – 686 million farm animals, or about 21 per person

• Chickens: 640 million
• Turkeys: 21.8 million
• Cows: 3.8 million
• Pigs: 21.3 million
  
  

Source: FAO stats (2007).

U.S. – 9.4 billion, or about 30 per person.

See a break down and analysis of the numbers and the USDA sources (2006).