We Animals Media

On dairy farms, living beings are made into machines. On Coronado Dairy, an Arizona dairy farm, hundreds of cows walk en masse into a milking facility as others exit. In order to produce milk for these companies, cows are artificially inseminated and carry a calf for nine and a half months before giving birth. The baby is taken away at birth, and the milk intended for them is sold for human consumption. This process repeats several times during a cow’s life until she is considered “spent” and is slaughtered for cheap meat. She is typically around four years old when she is slaughtered - a fifth of her natural lifespan. Coronado Dairy, owned by Riverview, LLP is one of the state’s most extensive dairy operations, able to accommodate up to 70,000 Jersey-cross heifers and another 7,000 dairy cows. 🎥: Coronado Dairy, Willcox, Arizona, USA, 2023. Ram Daya / We Animals Media #GotMilk #AnimalPhotojournalism

Inside every hutch is a newborn calf separated from their mother. In the scorching Arizona summer, We Animals Media photojournalist Ram Daya documented the alarming expansion of the state’s animal agriculture. This dairy farm (Turkey Creek Dairy), originally a family farm, now accommodates up to 130,000 heifers and cows and 17,000 hutches for calves, reflecting its growth into an investor-funded corporation. Mirroring practices our photojournalists have documented on other dairy farms around the globe, calves were immediately separated from their mothers at birth and kept in hutches for up to ninety days. Male calves and some females designated for the beef and veal market are sold within a few days of birth. Other female calves will be used for milk production in Arizona or shipped to company-owned dairy farms in other states. Their mother’s milk, intended for them, is sold for human consumption. 🎥: A milk dispenser drives between calf hutches on a massive dairy farm and delivers milk to the calves inside. Turkey Creek Dairy, Pearce, Arizona, USA, 2023. Ram Daya / We Animals Media

"In her book 'Regarding the Suffering of Others,' Susan Sontag proposes that: "Perhaps the only people with the right to look at images of suffering of this extreme order are those who could do something to alleviate it." In the case of animal suffering, that's all of us. Animal suffering – on factory farms, in research labs, places of entertainment, or ever-shrinking wild habitats – is caused by us humans. We have an obligation to see its effects and do something to alleviate that suffering." –Jo-Anne McArthur #WorldPhotographyDay 📷: 1. Farmed animals are tattooed for permanent identification so they can be tracked through the food production process. Poland, 2019. @AndrewSkowron / HIDDEN / We Animals Media 2. In Finland, foxes on fur farms can be legally kept in a cage less than one square metre. Finland, 2014. Kristo Muurimaa (@krs2vgn )/ HIDDEN / We Animals Media 3. A cow lies chained in a maternity pen. Except for brief periods after giving birth, most dairy cows are pregnant. Sri Lanka, 2018. Amy Jones (@movinganimals ) / HIDDEN / We Animals Media 4. Cycling, crab-eating macaques at an amusement park in Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam, 2018. @Aaron_Gekoski / HIDDEN / We Animals Media 5. Chickens hanging upside down on a processing line bleed to death over a blood trough at a halal slaughterhouse in Indonesia. Indonesia, 2022. @Seb.Alex / We Animals Media 6. Detail of fish and a sting ray after being emptied from nets onto the deck of the fishing boat Fasilis. Greece, 2020. @SeleneMagnolia.Photo / We Animals Media 7. A pig in a newly built industrial farm. Taiwan, 2019. @JoAnneMcArthurPhotography / We Animals Media

We Animals is thrilled to be an official supporter of END.IT, a global movement to end factory farming initiated by Compassion in World Farming (@CIWF ). Together with individuals, organizations, and forward-thinking businesses around the globe, we’re calling on world leaders to urgently transform our food system and end factory farming – for the sake of animals, people and the planet. From environmental pollution to the climate crisis; wildlife extinctions and farmed animal cruelty; to human hunger and malnutrition—take a closer look at almost any global challenge, and you’ll find food at its core. If the global community is to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Climate Agreement targets and the goals of the Convention on Biological Diversity, action must be taken to end intensive animal farming. We’re calling on world leaders to develop a Global Agreement on food and farming for adoption by the United Nations, with the objective being to move away from industrial animal agriculture and towards a sustainable food system. ➡️Join us today and sign the petition: weanimals.end.it/sign/ (or at the link in our @weanimals bio) In collaboration with @CIWF and campaign partners, we’ll be sharing more information, progress updates, and opportunities to take action through 2024 and beyond. #EndFactoryFarming #EndIT

The odds of a cow giving birth to triplets are 1 in 105,000. The odds of all triplets being female increase to 1 in 700,000. The odds that all three and the mother survive are nearly impossible. Pansy, Poppy, and Petunia—calf triplets—were recently born on a Massachusetts dairy farm just before their six-year-old mother, Marigold, was to be sent to slaughter. When the farmer learned Marigold was carrying triplets, he reached out to Tara of @behindyourmilk who coordinated her rescue and found her a home at @gentleacresanimalhaven . Marigold suffers from bovine leukosis virus (BLV), a cancer-causing retrovirus present in 89% of all US dairy herds. Since the virus is transmitted through milk and other bodily fluids, her babies must be bottle-fed. Jeanine, who owns Gentle Acres, tells us that Marigold often waits for the calves to start drinking their formula before she eats her meal, as mothers do. “Marigold waits until we bring the bottles for the calves before she starts eating herself. Once finished, she watches me, frequently ‘singing’ to her three calves while they drink. It’s a new experience for me.” There’s much of Marigold’s life that we’ll never know. But in documenting animal industries, we’ve come to learn that the details may change but the essentials never do: Marigold would have endured repeated insemination and impregnation, given birth, and had any babies taken away. On a typical dairy farm, female calves are usually allowed no more than 24 hours with their mothers. The bond between mother cows and their calves is strong, and it is common for each to cry out when separated or to fight to stay together. Marigold and her triplets all surviving is a rarity. And now, thanks to Tara of @behindyourmilk & Gentle Acres, she gets to do something most mother cows will never experience: live a full, safe life with her babies. For them, for the millions like them, #DitchDairy 🧡 📷: One-month-old female triplet calves Petunia, Pansy and Poppy drink from bottles at Gentle Acres Animal Haven, while their mother Marigold, a former dairy cow, carefully monitors. Virgina, USA, 2024. Shannon Johnstone (@m.shannon.johnstone ) / We Animals Media

"Invisibility is a superpower." - Banksy We are thrilled to announce that our second chosen Animal Photojournalism (APJ) Fellow of 2024 is Ira Moon, an undercover investigator and photojournalist who has worked in industrial animal use facilities across Turtle Island (North America). Because of the nature of their work, we won’t be showing their face or revealing their true identity. Ira Moon has worked alongside both human and nonhuman labourers at factory farms and witnessed the exploitation of both firsthand. These experiences and deep participation in other social causes have informed Ira’s belief that all issues intersect and that no one is free until everyone is free. We're thrilled to support Ira through this Fellowship as they explore the intersection between human workers and farmed animals, highlighting the story of the liberatory struggle shared by the human and nonhuman labourers in animal agriculture. While the nature of Ira's Fellowship may look different than others, we look forward to sharing these incredibly important stories with you over the coming months. Join us in congratulating Ira Moon as one of our 2024 APJ Fellowship recipients 🧡 Photos: 3. Calves, all chained to plastic hutches, at a small dairy farm. Vermont, USA, 2022. Ira Moon / We Animals Media 4. A group of ducks huddle together inside a filthy makeshift cage at the 2023 All Ontario Fur & Feather Associates "Buy, Sell, Trade Day" live animal sale. Canada, 2023. Ira Moon / We Animals Media 5. Several breeds of doves and pigeons sit unprotected from the weather inside barren wire cages at the 2023 All Ontario Fur & Feather Associates "Buy, Sell, Trade Day" live animal market. Canada, 2023. Ira Moon / We Animals Media 6. A red fox attempts to rest in a filthy cage at Killman Zoo. Canada, 2022. Ira Moon / We Animals Media 7. A vendor handles a young chick at the Huronia Fur and Feather Breeders Association annual spring sale. Canada, 2023. Ira Moon / We Animals Media #AnimalPhotojournalism

At We Animals Media, we often grapple with the ethics of displaying photographs that may distress viewers. Yet, ironically, the industries depicted are often those which are widely supported. The second photograph in this carousel is difficult to look at, yet it depicts standard practices in foie gras production. The suffering of the bird is palpable. A man's hand is firmly wrapped around her neck, restricting her movement. Her eyes are wide open as a tube is brutally shoved down her throat to feed her calorie-dense food - to fatten her liver to ten times its natural size. This bird is being farmed specifically for slaughter, her liver destined to become the so-called gourmet French delicacy known as foie gras. Photographs of cruel practices exist to prompt us, as consumers, to make better choices. They exist because these animals, trapped within our food system, deserve to have their suffering acknowledged. When we know better—when we see—we can do better. After weeks of investigation, our friends at @AnimalEquality have revealed that the Olympic Committee is serving foie gras at the Olympics— a product so cruel many countries are working to ban its production and sale. The Olympic Games represent, in many ways, the best of us: the ability to come together, strive for greatness, and inspire future generations. The decision of the Olympic Committee to serve foie gras—derived from the force-feeding of innocent animals—goes against the spirit of the Olympic Games. If it's too distressing for consumers to see this photograph, the logic follows that it's not a product that should be served. Join us in politely calling on the Olympic Committee (@olympics @olympicshospitality ) to remove foie gras from all menus. 📷: To produce the luxury food item foie gras, ducks and geese are force-fed to fatten their livers up to ten times their natural size. Spain, 2011. Luis Tato / HIDDEN / We Animals Media #FoieGras #Paris2024

“The public trusts the RSPCA to protect animals, when in fact we found the majority of animals they claim to protect are suffering under this scheme while they paint this idyllic, fairytale picture of British farming. Things are so bad, we had to rescue animals from RSPCA-assured farms. We’re asking them to drop the assured scheme and start telling the truth.” — Rose Patterson, co-director of @Animal.Rising In March 2024, @weanimals contributor @rlcappelli worked alongside Animal Rising activists to document the conditions of an RSPCA-classified “high-welfare” egg farm in Kent, United Kingdom. This farm, housing more than 64,000 hens, kept the animals in cramped conditions. Investigators witnessed dead animals on the farm floor, featherless hens, animals suffering from starvation and dehydration, and animals living in filthy, cramped conditions. A sick chicken named Babs was rescued by Rose Patterson and Daniel Juniper, one of the individuals who redecorated a portrait of King Charles III with Wallace last week. Babs was in critical condition when the two rescuers reached her, with severe feather loss from the conditions she was kept in. She is now living in a sanctuary, after receiving veterinary care and making a full recovery. The farm that Babs was rescued from was one of the 45 detailed in an extensive report released by Animal Rising Video as part of the largest investigation into farmed animal welfare in the history of the United Kingdom. “Babs’ rescue and recovery is a testimony of why the work of Animal Rising is crucial not only for animals, but for people who are misled by meaningless schemes such as RSPCA’s Assured Farms.” – Rebecca Cappelli Loviconi In the UK, the RSPCA scheme is central to the humane myth, reinforced through TV adverts depicting animals running around in fields, school programs promoting RSPCA Assured meat instead of plant-based alternatives, and the RSPCA name itself endorsing the industry. What you can do ➡️ Join us in calling on the RSPCA to drop the assured scheme, stop misleading consumers, and tell the truth about the realities of farming animals.

We heard it’s #WorldYogaDay , so we’ll just leave this here… 🐈‍⬛🐄 📷: Rescued cow, Esperanza, curiously approaches Guapija the cat at the farmed animal sanctuary Santuario Igualdad in Chile. Santuario Igualdad, El Monte, Santiago, Chile, 2015. Gabriela Penela (@elfocoanimal ) / We Animals Media

On the bloody, wet floor of a Thai slaughterhouse, a barefoot little girl, the daughter of Myanmar refugees, plays among pig heads and carcasses. Her parents work in the slaughterhouse, and the family lives on the premises. Her childhood, one of normalized violence, is incomprehensible to most of us. No one dreams of working and raising their children in a slaughterhouse. Around the world, refugees and immigrants, desperate for work, make up the majority of the slaughterhouse workforce. The work is difficult, dangerous, and violent, with lasting psychological, emotional and physical effects. Research suggests repeated exposure to violence in a slaughterhouse causes psychological damage. Depression levels are four times higher in slaughterhouse workers than the national average. According to a 2021 review paper in the journal Trauma, Violence & Abuse, slaughterhouse work also carries an increased likelihood of anxiety, psychoticism and hostile behaviour. A Human Rights Watch report ranked slaughterhouse work as “one of the most dangerous factory jobs,” with injury rates more than twice the national American average. The meat industry depends on our disconection: disconnection from who we eat and who has suffered—human and non-human alike. The slaughterhouse scene offers a glaring illustration of how the meat (and dairy and egg) industry views the vulnerable: exploitable. 📷: Bangkok, Thailand, 2019. Andrew Skowron / HIDDEN / We Animals Media #WorldRefugeeDay

#NatureinFocusCatchlight ♦️♦️ Join us this week as we feature the work of animal photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur (@joannemcarthurphotography ) of We Animals Media (@weanimals ), who specialises in telling stories of the animals hidden away from society, the animals we wear, eat, and use for entertainment, research and so on. ♦️♦️ Despite the political and conservation efforts in many African countries, the poaching of primates for the bushmeat trade continues to increase. “Bushmeat” refers to the practice of hunting and killing wild animals for sale as meat both in the country of their origin and for export. Because the hunting is indiscriminate and infants don’t have much flesh, many young apes are orphaned and left to die alone in the forest or brought back to the cities and sold as pets. Those like six-year-old Pikin the gorilla, who’ve been rescued from the bushmeat and pet trades, must be reared in safety — an unfortunate side effect being that the primates become habituated to humans and cannot be released back into the wild.  Indeed, to do so would be to return them to the very danger from which they were rescued. For now, the sanctuary is the best that humans can offer them. And one of the best humans for this mission is Appolinaire Ndohoudou. Like Pikin, he’d been forced from his home. He’d fled Chad because of a bloody civil war and had eventually found employment in Cameroon as a security guard at Ape Action Africa. Appolinaire had the gentle and reassuring demeanour needed for a gorilla keeper and thus began his decades-long work with the species. 🔸continued in the comments🔸

In the #LiveExport machine, animals are trucked and shipped, like cargo, from far-away countries on journeys that can take several weeks. Almost two billion cows, pigs, sheep, and other farmed animals withstand these brutal journeys across borders around the world every year. Many collapse and die before reaching their final destination. Those who survive the trip are sent to sale yards and slaughterhouses; 160 million animals are transported to a slaughterhouse each and every day. “I want people to see inside the trucks the way I’m here seeing inside the trucks– so that they can know, so that they can care, so that they can change.” –Jo-Anne McArthur For this year’s Ban Live Exports International Awareness Day, June 14, we ask that you don’t look away and help us raise awareness about this cruel and wholly unnecessary system. Photos: 1. Cattle destined for slaughter in the Middle East look down from an open-sided deck on the Mawashi Express, a massive farmed animal carrier ship capable of transporting thousands of live animals in a single voyage. Mindelo, Cape Verde, 2023. @StefanoBelacchi / We Animals Media 2. The Mawashi Express ien route between South America and Turkiye, a journey of at least 24 to 30 days. Millions of live animals are shipped annually across oceans in this way. Mindelo, Cape Verde, 2023. @StefanoBelacchi / We Animals Media 3. Animals transported by sea from Australia to the middle east. Port of Haifa, Haifa, Israel, 2018. @joannemcarthurphotography / @israel.against.live.shipments / We Animals Media 4. Sheep inside a transport truck parked at the Bulgarian-Turkish border. Kapikule, Edirne Province (East Thrace), Turkiye, 2018. Jo-Anne McArthur / @eyes_on_animals / We Animals Media 5. A side view of Mawashi Express, a massive farmed animal carrier ship capable of transporting thousands of live animals in a single voyage. The ship is en route between South America and Turkiye, a journey of at least 24 to 30 days. Millions of live animals are shipped annually across oceans in this way. Mindelo, Cape Verde, 2023. @StefanoBelacchi / We Animals Media #BanLiveExports