Investigations

Animal Equality, along with Ana Pardo de Vera, Chief Editor at Público, released an investigation into a factory farm in Spain documenting the cruelty of the farm's environment and the rapid growth of chickens. Our team visited the same farm during different life stages of the farm’s chickens, revealing the immense suffering these birds go through before slaughter.

Animal Equality's investigators have documented the suffering of tens of thousands of lambs as they are shipped from Spain by truck and then forced to travel by sea across long distances. The journeys can last up to ten days until they arrive at Emirates or Egypt, where the animals will be killed while fully conscious.

Citing public health and safety, Animal Equality launched a worldwide campaign and petition calling on the United Nations to immediately close all wet markets that sell animals. Not only do these markets pose an immediate danger to humans, but they are also intensely cruel and abhorrently inhumane to animals, as shown by our investigation into wet markets in China, India, and Vietnam.

Animal rights activist and actor Rooney Mara joined Animal Equality for an investigation inside two modern farms. The investigation video, narrated by Mara and titled “With My Own Eyes,” reveals how pigs and chickens raised for meat languished in deplorable conditions, and encourages viewers to examine this harsh and painful reality for billions of farmed animals.

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.