What would happen to all the farm animals if everyone went vegan?

If everyone went vegan, the meat industry would no longer have any customers. There would be no need to produce more animals. My guess is they would slaughter the living animals, try to sell those and then shut their doors for good.

The meat industry is a business just like any other business. What happens to a business that is about to go under? Inventory, which in the case of people who raise animals for food are the animals themselves, needs to be liquidated. This means exchanging the inventory for cash. They just wouldn't let the animals go free. That would be an incredibly stupid business decision. They would either try to sell the animals or they would sell the animal's meat.

In either case, no more animals would be produced, so, there would be a lot less cattle, sheep, chicken, and hogs in the world. I'm sure some people would still raise them for pets. Or, in the case of sheep, people would raise them for their wool.

Edit: I thought about it a little bit more. Hypothetically, EVERYONE went vegan. And this includes the people that own the meat and dairy industries. They probably wouldn't slaughter the animals, because they would know that they didn't have any customers to buy the meat.

However, even those these people adopted vegan principles, I doubt very much that they would abandon their business principles. There are lots of vegan in this world that own businesses. All business have a list of assets and liabilities. The main assets would be the inventory (animals). They still have to pay bills (liabilities), even if they go out of business. In order to pay their bills, they have to turn there assets into cash, as I mentioned earlier. I doubt if anyone would simply stop paying bills just because they became a vegan. These people would have to find jobs and open new business after the meat industry shuts down. It will be really hard to get a loan for a new business if someone hadn't paid their debt. And, a lot of companies are now checking people's credit history before they hire them.

I like the fact that you're thinking very idealistically, however reason and logic would be more applicable in this situation.

They would be killed as competition for food rather than a source. They could not be released into the wild without damaging the eco system. Most of them would die out rather quickly as they are not well suited to living on their own. There would be exceptions. Remember in the old west cattle were free range and did survive. Chickens have a remarkable ability to go feral in many places. As do pigs ( a serious problem in some place ) Goats do too. Ducks would except the most common breeds on farms have been bred to not fly making them easy prey. Turkeys would die out quickly because they also do not fly. Some of them might survive long enough to breed with wild turkeys and alter the gene pool. Sheep might be able to survive depending on what predators are around.

The extinction of domestic animals is the agenda of PETA.

This is not a rant. It is just a factual description based on my exposure to farms and their economics.

The farm animals that tend to have no survival skills in the wild would be extinct in no time. The life of creatures like chickens who are raised and cared for just for a few months and then slaughtered by the millions on factory farms would end in a growth cycle or two. Cows, sheep, and other dairy animals would be slaughtered rather than being allowed to be an expense in a world without demand for milk and cheese.

The most likely fate for most of those animals is that they will be sold to gun clubs so that hunters can shoot them and have some new types of trophies to put on their wall.

btw as a reality check the life of a "free range chicken" consists of starting out in cages where they are fed and watered. When they are old enough to be on their own the doors are opened and they are let out onto a grassy area to free-range and eat whatever they find. Within minutes most turn around and go back into their cages and wait for the next meal. That is about typical of what farm animals would do since the skills to live on their own have been bred out of them over many generations.

All vegans at that time you are dreaming about will be responsible for the biggest and cruelest die-off of domesticated animals ever.

Many farm animals have gone extinct due to the preference for other breeds of farm animals, already. The original draft ox has not been around for over a hundred years. Countless varieties of pigs, foul, dogs, etc. are gone forever because we no longer found them useful. We artificially select for these niche animals anyway. They don't exist for any reason than because we adapted them to our needs and wants.

If we did not eat them, we would not breed them. It is not as if we'd all ever go vegan or that it would happen over night if we did. If you are are of this, why ask the question?

Some might exist as ccompanionanimals on hobby farms, but that is all. Is that really an issue?

You have to include reality in your consideration. Everyone would not suddenly decide to go vegan at once. Animals are killed in the industry. That's the purpose of the meat industry-- to raise animals to kill them for meat. The animals would continue to be eaten by those who still eat meat. If there was an increased supply, and decreased demand, prices would drop. A market would be found somewhere in the world for those animals already in the system. Every company is going to squeeze every penny they can out of those animals-- not release them and start singing happy songs. The only animals you save are those who will never be born into the system because of decreased demand.

People are always suggesting they'll go extinct, and others suggest they will overpopulate the planet and destroy everything. Both of these are ridiculous. They would not go extinct. They're not going to be released and overpopulate the planet. Many of them are already castrated anyway. And there will always be places for them on properties, and in farm sanctuaries because if people would care enough not to eat them, they also care enough to care for them. Some animals would also still be raised to feed other carnivorous animals.

They wouldn't be 'farm' animals anymore. Most farmers are for profit, personally or commercially. Occasionally people have chickens, goats, pigs, cows, whatnot as pets but that's rare in comparison with farmers who make a living from their herd. You might not think it's possible to set them free but it would be the only solution. Farmers could not afford to support herds without making money off them. Therefore, the animals would just have to live in the wild. We have cows and without us buying feed, making hay and getting vaccines for them they wouldn't survive bad winters, droughts and disease. They would be wild - unprotected from urban sprawl, road traffic, other wild animals. So the issue is let them starve/otherwise die naturally or kill them for human consumption. Which is worse for us as the superior and compassionate species to allow?

There would be far less animals - so many are raised solely as food or for food (milk, eggs). As I'm sure you know, most of the ones living solely for consumption purposes are in too-small cages and pens - we never see these. They would all die off and not be replaced by volume breeding. Anyway, even with far less, we'd have to take care of them to some degree. Some people would keep them as pets. Otherwise, they would gradually go back to being wild animals, at the mercy of nature?

If everyone went vegan, there would be no market for the animals. The farmers would have to kill them all, as they could not afford to feed them and take care of them. The farms would then either go out of business, or try to grow something else, if their land actually could support crops. Much land is not good for growing food other than meat. This is especially true of range lands.

This would also mean no leather, so no leather shoes, purses, belts, or anything else.

Everyone wouldn't go vegan overnight. Those animals would eventually be eaten, just not made to reproduce. Their wild ancestors would continue to live in the wild.

It would throw off the balance of nature and the food chain. Most of those animals are not meant to just be wild so they will either die off or they will over-populate.

I think this is something many people don't think about. There is a tenuous balance in nature that was kept in check naturally. With people going vegetarian and vegan though, that balance has been upset. One day we're going to find that we're overrun with certain animals that we might have no choice but to destroy them or just let them die off and go extinct.