Why ‘gifting animals’ abroad is not a good idea
Giving animals may seem kind, but giving cows and goats to (lactose-intolerant) people in developing countries that already suffer over-grazing is not a good idea. It creates more mouths to water and feed, can spread disease and result in fights, where animals are ‘cash crops’.
A better alternative is to grow teff, the world’s tiniest grain that is also super-high in protein. In Ethiopia (where we imported food from during Live Aid to feed our livestock), around 40% of people are starving.
Yet the country has 50 million cattle, sheep and goats and 35 million chickens. All consuming food and water, which causes overgrazing, deforestation, erosion and desertification.
You can feed way more people with plants than livestock, so donating to plant-based food charities means that your money feeds more people:
Animal gifting is madness. Environmentally unsound and economically disastrous. The grave consequences of introducing large numbers of goats and other domestic animals into fragile, arid environments is well-documented.
It’s grossly irresponsible to continue with these schemes, as a means of raising quick money for charities, over the Christmas season. The World Land Trust
Reasons to avoid animal gifting
For more details on each point, visit Well Fed World:
- Many recipients are lactose-intolerant.
- Animal gifting encourages factory farms
- Animal gift gives weight to the ‘protein gap’ myth
- More farmed animals, means more mouths to feed.
- Farmed animals do not just ‘live off the land’
- Farmed animals use a great deal of (scarce) water
- Animal gifting displaces native foods (like teff, above)
- Livestock farmers are switch to climate-resilient crops
- World hunger experts disapprove of animal gifting
- Animal gifting undermines climate recommendations
- There are better ways to feed hungry people
