In the United States, around ten billion animals are slaughtered every year in 5,700 slaughterhouses and processing plants employing 527,000 workers; in 2007, 28.1 billion pounds of beef were consumed in the U.S. alone. In Canada, 650 million are killed annually. In the European Union, the annual figure is 300 million cattle, sheep, and pigs, and four billion chickens. (Wikipedia)