Investigations

New video obtained in Italian slaughterhouses and farms revealed that lambs and baby goats were kept in dark, cramped sheds, and sometimes still conscious and struggling while workers slit their throats.

Animal Equality exposed the reality of life for chickens in four award-winning “organic” and “free-range” farms in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The farms mislead the public by promoting eggs from their “happy chickens,” but in reality many of the chickens were sick, injured, dead, or dying.

Animal Equality investigated circuses and documented the cramped conditions that the animals were forced to live in, and animals’ injuries that were the result of being whipped and hit by trainers. The footage resulted in Guadalajara banning circuses with wild animals. Soon after, the entire state of Jalisco banned them, too. Thanks to Animal Equality investigations, 13 states and 13 municipalities in Mexico moved to ban circuses that exploit animals for entertainment.

In September 2013, Animal Equality presented unedited images from an investigation carried out in dog and cat markets, slaughterhouses and dog breeding and fattening farms, in China

Our investigators, who put themselves at risk to infiltrate slaughterhouses and dog meat businesses in Jiangmen and Zhanjiang, obtained rarely-seen images and video footage revealing the horrors taking place to satisfy the demand for dog meat across China. The shocking images show terrified dogs kept in appalling conditions in the slaughterhouses before being brutally beaten with wooden clubs and stabbed to death in full view of other dogs who await their turn.

For more than a year, undercover activists documented what happened to lambs on Italian breeding farms and in slaughterhouses. The shocking footage, which showed the baby animals being slaughtered at just a month old, made many Italians think twice about eating lamb, which is considered a 'traditional' meal in the country.

Animal Equality revealed confinement and suffering of chimpanzees at Schwaben Park, Germany. Over ten months, investigators carried out detailed research and observations to document the humiliating circus shows at the park, the monotony of the animals’ daily lives, the cruel separation of chimpanzee infants from their mothers, and sick and mentally impaired animals.

Animal Equality exposed the suffering of macaques at the Camarles monkey farm, in Spain. Each year, between 1,500 and 2,000 macaques are stolen from their homes in the wild and shipped, often times on commercial airplanes, to the facility where they languish in barren cages before being sold to laboratories.

Animal Equality obtained photographs from within a horse slaughterhouse in Spain to show the public the truth about what happens to horses killed for meat. The investigation garnered national coverage from El Mundo.

The Spanish farm Caracierzos was a supplier for well-known companies Collverd and Martiko. The footage Animal Equality investigators obtained revealed ducks let to languish with broken beaks and covered with blood caused by being force-fed. Many animals on the farm also suffered from eye infections and breathing difficulties.

In 2011, Animal Equality presented a shocking investigation into the French foie gras industry. Investigators visited four ‘traditional’ farms,Josette Neuville, Grezelade, La Campagnoise, Boutieres, located in the south-east of France. Traditional farming allegedly guarantees ‘higher welfare’ conditions. However, at each of the farms visited, Animal Equality documented shocking scenes of physical violence and psychological suffering.

Following Animal Equality’s expose of Spanish foie gras farms, the Health and Consumer Affairs Department initiated disciplinary action against the owner of Mugaritz, which was considered to be the world’s third best restaurant, and against the owner of a duck breeding farm that supplied ducks to be killed for foie gras.