Investigations

To create a one-of-a kind virtual reality experience, Animal Equality investigators places 360 degree cameras inside standard modern chicken farms to document how these animals are forced to live, and eventually be slaughtered for meat. Our iAnimal videos are licensed to other groups and used around the world at events to show the public the realities of factory farming.

Animal Equality infiltrated 21 slaughterhouses across Mexico and exposed immense suffering and cruelty. The investigation ignited a media firestorm and a national dialogue on the way farmed animals are treated.

We exposed shocking scenes of cruelty on egg farms, in Mexico where hens endured unimaginable suffering, including being forced to go three to five days without food or water to assure a bigger egg production. The footage garnered some of the first-ever media coverage about egg production in the area.

Investigators visited Knapp Farm in the United Kingdom and filmed chickens desperately struggling, but unable to stand, and dead birds littering the floor. On one visit, investigators found a weak young bird trapped inside a dumpster, shivering on top of a pile of rotting corpses.  

Animal Equality obtained footage inside two award-winning pig farms in the United Kingdom. Pigs were kept in overcrowded, feces-caked pens. Piglets were found dead or dying, and animals languished with large wounds. A dead pig was cannibalized by other pigs on one farm, despite it being named “Pig Farmer of the Year.”

Investigators placed 360º cameras inside pig farms to document typical practices of the meat industry for an innovative virtual reality film. The footage shows standard practices in the meat industry such as castration, tail amputation, and tooth clipping without the use of pain medication or sedation. Our iAnimal films are shown to people world wide so they can learn about what happens to animals raised for food first-hand.

Animal Equality has filmed with 360-degree cameras inside two pig slaughterhouses in the Mexican state of Jalisco. The footage has been included in the virtual reality films iAnimal - Through the Eyes of a Pig and Factory Farm, seen by tens of thousands of people each year.

Animal Equality's international investigation inside chicken hatcheries was filmed over the course of two years and showed that male chicks in the egg industry were cruelly discarded and crushed after birth. After the footage was released to the public, media outlets such as The India Times, The Sun, Metro and Daily Mail, covered the story and the video went viral on social media.

With the aid of local activists, in November 2015, Animal Equality’s investigators infiltrated the Chinese dog and cat fur industry across several regions of the country. Our investigators uncovered the cruelty behind the killing of dogs and cats for their fur to make bags, toys, and clothing.

We released a photo gallery containing never-before-seen images of bulls and calves (“encierros” and “novilladas”) at cruel bullfighting festivals, which were partially funded by European Union taxpayers. The EU annually provideed a subsidy of over £110 million via the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to farmers who bred bulls for bullfights and other blood fiestas. British taxpayers helped fund bullfighting in Spain with over £13.5 million a year.

For several months, Animal Equality has worked closely and intensively with the Italian program 'AnnoUno' to launch a never-seen-before investigation into the Italian pig industry. The program broadcasted on Thursday, May 21 on channel 'La7' and was watched live by 1.020.936 people. Following this presentation, Animal Equality launched an exclusive report with Italian newspaper 'Corriere della Sera' showing new distressing footage of the reality experienced by millions of pigs in factory farms and slaughterhouses in Italy.

Consumers often pay top dollar for animal products labeled “organic,” thinking that the animals are treated better than those in other farms. However, Animal Equality busted that myth when we documented the cramped and filthy living conditions of hens on two organic egg farms that supply eggs to a top egg company in Europe.