a life, counted in beats

Heartbeats

These are the hearts of twelve farmed animals, beating at their real rates. Each was born with a lifetime of beats. Most will be stopped with more than nine-tenths of them left.

hover a line to hear it
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Each line below is one life, drawn at full length. The red part is what was lived. The rest is what the heart was built for.

lived natural lifespan sound is off · turn it on, top right, to hear each heart stop

What was left

Share of a natural lifespan that each animal is allowed, in conventional production. Sorted from least to most.

Twelve lives, one clock

The same animals on a single scale. A cow's twenty years is the full width. What each was given is in red.

Somewhere, right now, every one of these hearts is beating.

Since you opened this page, yours has beaten about 0 times.