Ivy Pepin
It’s a well-known fact that billions of cows, pigs, and chickens suffer in our food system. But the reach of intensive animal agriculture stretches far beyond the walls of factory farms.
We’re in the midst of a global mass extinction. That much is clear.
Scientists agree that we’re in a biodiversity crisis the likes of which we’ve never seen before. A sobering new report from the World Wildlife Fund shows that wildlife populations have declined 73% between 1970 and 2020. The “Red List,” a species monitoring tool created by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), currently lists over 46,300 species threatened with extinction.
But too often, we overlook one of the main drivers of the crisis: intensive animal agriculture.
Habitat destruction. Deforestation. Pollution. Predator control programs. Many of these major threats to biodiversity have one common denominator: factory farming. Read on to discover 10 unexpected species being harmed by intensive animal agriculture—and learn how you can help prevent their decline.
1. Jaguars
Lithe and beautiful, jaguars are an apex predator in Brazil and other parts of the Americas. But the native big cat is rapidly losing habitat, thanks to deforestation driven by livestock farmers. Cattle ranchers have deforested huge swaths of the Amazon rainforest, using the land for cattle ranching and soybean production (a crop used largely in animal feed). In fact, half of the world’s habitable land is now used for agriculture.
As their rainforest home shrinks, jaguars are forced into smaller territories. This increases the risk of conflict with humans and reduces the genetic diversity of their populations. Protecting jaguar habitats is essential—not only for their survival, but for the health of the entire ecosystem.
“The most visible mark that humanity has left on the planet is the transformation of wild habitats into farmland.” — Our World in Data
2. Wolves
After centuries of systematic killing by European settlers, conservationists have spent decades working to restore wolf populations. But wolves continue to be targeted today—by taxpayer-funded predator control programs put in place to protect livestock.
Vox reports that Wildlife Services, a “euphemistically named” program of the US Department of Agriculture, killed 1.45 million animals in 2023 alone. Hundreds of those animals were endangered gray wolves, targeted for their potential threat to ranchers’ cattle and sheep.
However, predation is only responsible for a small percentage of cow deaths—around 4.7% in 2015, according to the USDA. These culls disrupt entire ecosystems where wolves play a critical role as apex predators.
3. and 4. Coyotes and foxes
Like wolves, coyotes and foxes are systematically killed to reduce potential livestock losses. Both animals are highly adaptable and play a crucial role in controlling populations of rodents and other small mammals. But aggressive control efforts, funded by taxpayers like you, kill them indiscriminately. These “cullings” set local ecosystems off balance, leading to overpopulation of other species and disrupting natural vegetation.
5. Starlings
Wildlife Services doesn’t just target megafauna. Almost half of all the animals killed by Wildlife Services—adding up to over 800,000 birds in 2023 alone—were European starlings. This is because the birds like to eat grain at cattle feedlots and dairy farms.
Most of the birds are cruelly killed with a poison known as Starlicide, a method that “slowly and excruciatingly kill[s] them over the course of three to 80 hours.” Like a dystopian nightmare, towns in the US have seen “showers of dead starlings” raining from the sky.
6. Freshwater fish
Predator control programs aren’t the only threat facing biodiversity. The massive pollution from factory farms—including nitrogen and phosphorus runoff from copious use of fertilizer—has contaminated rivers and streams across the country, resulting in the widespread die-off of freshwater fish.
Residents of Oklahoma, a state with a high concentration of factory farms, describe watching the Illinois River turn from sparkling blue to a murky shade of green. According to environmental reports, agricultural runoff has impaired 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 US states and contaminated groundwater in 17 states. The low oxygen levels, toxic algae blooms, and altered ecosystems have decimated fish populations.
7. Amphibians
Pollution from factory farms is also threatening amphibians, like frogs and salamanders. Runoff from animal waste and fertilizers contaminates the wetlands and ponds where amphibians live and breed, gradually creating fatal conditions like toxic algal blooms and lower oxygen levels. As amphibians are highly sensitive to environmental changes, they’re known by scientists as “indicator species”—letting us know when an ecosystem is in trouble. Their pervasive decline should serve as a dire warning of broader environmental crises.
8. Sea Turtles
It’s not just freshwater aquatic animals who are being affected. Industrial fishing practices—like trawling and longlining—present a major threat to ocean animals, including sea turtles. As they forage in the open ocean, turtles become entangled in fishing nets, which are often intended for fish used in animal feed.
This is a problem known as bycatch, the incidental capture of non-target species—an unintended yet devastating consequence of industrial fishing. Bycatch has become the single greatest threat to many turtle populations.
9. Bees
It’s often said that bees are behind one in every three bites of food we eat. Without these hardworking pollinators, entire ecosystems and the food supply chain are at risk of collapse.
But widespread spraying of pesticides, habitat destruction, and climate change have caused catastrophic declines in bee populations. These are all key markers of (you guessed it) industrial animal agriculture. Agribusiness transforms diverse, thriving ecosystems into vast monocultures—and then blankets them with harmful pesticides.
“To reverse the world bee decline, we need to fix our dysfunctional and destructive agricultural system.” — Greenpeace
10. Bats
Like bees, bats are being threatened by the habitat loss and pesticide exposure caused by factory farming. Forest clearing for animal agriculture robs bats of their roosting sites and food sources. Pesticides poison the insects they eat, impacting bats’ health and reproduction. Ironically, bats are natural pest controllers, and their decline has ripple effects on the health of crops and the stability of entire ecosystems.
Help Protect Wildlife—and All Animals
As we know all too well, ecosystems are delicate structures. When one keystone species is harmed, entire ecosystems can crumble. According to the UN Environment Programme, the global food system is the primary driver of biodiversity loss. Of the 28,000 species threatened with extinction, around 24,000 are impacted primarily by animal agriculture.
With half of the world’s habitable land used for farming—and of that, 77% dedicated to animal agriculture—factory farms are devastating natural habitats and threatening thousands of species. To protect these incredible animals and the ecosystems they inhabit, we must shift toward more sustainable food systems, before it’s too late.
Will you join the growing movement to protect nature from the threat of factory farming?
