Turkey is a poor performer under the VACI.
Turkey is a poor performer under the VACI.
Turkey slaughters around 14.8 land-based animals per person / year, which is higher than the global average of 9.7. The country’s dependency on farm animals is also higher than average, with around 4.6 farm animals per person (compared with a global average of around 4). Factoring farm is prevalent in poultry production. As with other Muslim countries, no data was available for pig meat production.
The Turkish diet contains a relatively low proportion of animal products, with around 32.5% 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 34.6g of land-based animal protein per day (compared with a global average of 26.7g).
Turkey was given an “E” under the Animal Protection Index (API), and is also a poor performer under the Sanctioning Cruelty category. According to the API, Turkey has inadequate animal protection laws that are poorly implemented and enforced. It should be noted that positive amendments to Turkey’s animal protection laws were implemented in 2014 and were not considered in the API’s assessment. Learn more about the quality of Turkey’s legislative protections on the API here.