The Voiceless Animal Cruelty Index and its relationship to per capita purchasing power parity and inequality

Abstract

The Voiceless Animal Cruelty Index (VACI) calculates three indices for deliberate or willfully ignorant animal mistreatment in 50 countries with high agricultural output. These are animal slaughter (Producing Cruelty), animal consumption (Enabling Cruelty), and laws protecting farmed animals (Sanctioning Cruelty). The rankings of Producing, Enabling and Sanctioning Cruelty are combined to form the final VACI rank. Weighted values for animals slaughtered and numbers of animals consumed, and the overall VACI rank showed a Kuznets effect with per capita Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). The inflection point was between $26 and $42K. Sanctioning Cruelty declined significantly in a linear fashion as PPP increased but did not show a Kuznets effect. Weighted numbers of animals consumed and overall VACI rank both increased with increasing income inequality (as measured by the Gini coefficient), for the 16 countries with the highest per capita PPP. This confirms other studies showing societal improvements in developed countries with higher equality. This is the first instance where slaughter or consumption of animals has shown an animal welfare Kuznets curve with an inflection point within the normal PPP range, where time series data was not used.