Iran is a very poor performer (“F”) under the VACI, on par with Russia and Argentina. Although the Iranian diet has a low proportion of animal products, the country has a high dependence on farmed animal production and a lack of meaningful animal protection legislation.
Iran slaughters around 23 land-based animals per person per year, compared to the global average of 10.1. The country’s dependency on farmed animals is extremely high, second only to Uruguay, with around 13 farmed animals per person, versus a global average of 4.1. The farming of chickens and other birds is Iran’s second largest industry after oil.
The Iranian diet contains a relatively low proportion of animal products, with around 26% of the average person’s diet being made up of land-based animal protein, compared with a global average of 35.2%. This equates to each person consuming around 21.9g of land-based animal protein per day, versus a global average of 27.2g.
Iran is rated as the worst performer (“G”) of all countries under the Animal Protection Index (API), and its farmed animal protection legislation scored the same rating under the index. This is due to the lack of meaningful animal cruelty laws and near absence of animal welfare provisions for the rearing, transport, and slaughter of farmed animals. Learn more about the quality of Iran’s legislative protections on the API here.