Squeezed real incomes mean cheaper cuts of meat, and if not properly policed, cheaper animals being slaughtered.

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So there's not a few hundred horses being slaughtered in Ireland every year now - there's tens of thousands of them.

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There are also signs that Iraqis are turning against the insurgents, angry at seeing so many of their compatriots being slaughtered in their attacks.

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It makes sense, but shifting a longstanding cultural preference could take a while and in the meantime elephants are being slaughtered at an alarming rate.

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The killing follows warnings last year from conservation groups that elephants were being slaughtered in Africa at an alarming rate to feed demand for ivory from increasingly affluent Asian countries, particularly China and Thailand.

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The growing awareness of World War I as a grotesque tragedy, where millions of young men were being slaughtered by the unprecedented force of new mechanical weapons, surely influenced Epstein's decision to ruthlessly alter his original idea.

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And this comes despite many consumers being aware than animals in Australia are slaughtered far more humanely.

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Worst of all, it seems that some animals are being bought just so they can be slaughtered for their skins, which fetch up to ten times more than a live animal.

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It is being reported that up to a million animals could be slaughtered.

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Pigs get an equivalent salon treatment before they're slaughtered, running free in pastures rather than being cooped up in cement pens.

FORBES: Magazine Article