In honor of the upcoming World Day for Farmed Animals on Thursday, October 2nd, many people are uploading #FastAgainstSlaughter pledges to social media websites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The World Day for Farmed Animals is coordinated by the Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) in partnership with several major animal rights and welfare organizations, including Mercy for Animals, The Humane League, and In Defense of Animals.

Founded in 1983, the World Day for Farmed Animals aims to raise awareness about the needless suffering that 65 billion non-human animals must endure in order to become products of commercial agribusiness. As if being slaughtered wasn’t cruel enough, the majority of animals sent away for meat processing are starved beforehand. Factory farm owners do not wish to waste feed on animals in transit to slaughter, so an animal’s final days are spent in uncomfortable  starvation.

To join in solidarity with the millions of starving and exploited animals, the “#FastAgainstSlaughter” protest encourages participants to abstain from food for 24 hours on the World Day for Farmed Animals. In addition to the individual protests, marches and events will also be held in cities around the globe.

For those not ready to fast in honor of exploited animals, it’s easy enough to respect the billions of lives lost each year by going vegan for a day or even a week.