Investigations

Animal Equality investigators have documented the massive ritual slaughter of animals during the Gadhimai Festival in Southern Nepal, which takes place every five years. Using drones, the investigators captured the magnitude of the killing, which occurred despite a promise to ban animal sacrifice.

In Italy, Animal Equality released new footage showing the slaughter of chickens by artisanal butchers. The birds are often killed without stunning, leaving them to suffer.

Animal Equality in Mexico investigated the country’s illegal slaughterhouses and brought to light the cruel treatment of lambs and sheep. They witnessed animals fully conscious as they were tied up and decapitated in full view of other animals awaiting slaughter. Lawmakers in Mexico are being urged to criminalize these places and the people who operate them.

An undercover investigator visited Farmers Fresh Wales slaughterhouse in Wrexham, documenting severe cruelty. Sheep and lambs were decapitated in front of one another, corpses piled onto live animals, and inadequate machinery left animals trapped and hanging. Shockingly, much of this suffering occurred despite previous investigations and even in the presence of a Food Standards Agency inspector.

Animal Equality investigators documented buffalo mozzarella production in Northern Italy. Video footage revealed buffaloes being forced to live amid knee-deep feces alongside dead animals, and baby male buffaloes left to die of hunger and thirst. Italian citizens offered testimonies, revealing the environmental impact of these farms on the community.

After wildfires devastated the Amazon, Animal Equality in Brazil sent investigators to document increased deforestation linked to animal agriculture. Footage shows that cattle farming—through forest clearing for pasture and soy feed production—is a major driver of destruction, with severe and widespread environmental impacts.

Animal Equality in Italy released footage from a pig slaughterhouse in Lombardy showing terrified pigs being gouged with electric prods, improperly stunned, and slaughtered while still conscious. The organization has gathered over 140,000 signatures calling for reform, including the installation of CCTV cameras in all Italian slaughterhouses.

For four months, Animal Equality in Italy, alongside Tg2 journalist Piergiorgio Giacovazzo, investigated a pig farm in Lombardy. Despite local animal welfare laws, thousands of pigs were found living in extreme confinement, filth, and abuse—including a worker who killed a pig by throwing it against a wall. Animal Equality launched a petition urging the Minister of Agricultural Policies to close the farm and strengthen oversight across the region.

Animal Equality investigated Summit Calf Ranch in Nebraska, which houses 11,000 calves and is owned by Tuls Dairy, a supplier for Bel Brands, producer of Babybel and The Laughing Cow Cheese. Footage shows calves suffering outdoors in freezing temperatures, with frozen limbs, severed hooves, and some dying among piles of dead and dying animals. Animal Equality is urging authorities to consider criminal charges against those responsible.

Between February and April 2019, Animal Equality investigators visited Red Tractor-certified farms in the UK, documenting the suffering of animals confined in double-decker chicken sheds, which hold over 30,000 birds per floor. Many chickens were unable to stand, and carcasses were left to rot among the living. These farms supply major UK retailers, including high-end supermarkets.

Animal Equality investigators documented the cruelty endured by turkeys in hatcheries, factory farms, and slaughterhouses in Spain, exposing practices common in the U.S. Newly hatched birds that don’t meet industry standards are discarded alive. Others suffer mutilations, debilitating injuries caused by rapid growth, or are boiled alive due to inadequate killing methods.

Investigators documented cruelty inside Red Tractor-certified British chicken farms supplying major retailers, following a whistleblower report. Footage reveals birds collapsing under unnaturally large bodies, dead birds left to rot among the living, cannibalism, workers breaking birds’ necks and leaving them to convulse, and repeated kicking and stepping on live birds—showing that certification labels do not prevent suffering.