EXPOSING ANIMAL CRUELTY
Saving lives around the world by exposing the truth.
THE POWER OF UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATIONS
Investigations are the most powerful tool we have to expose the cruel and abusive treatment of animals inside the secretive world of industrial animal agriculture.
Our undercover investigators document and help end horrific animal abuse. Their work is frequently featured in the media, encouraging consumers to make more informed decisions each time they choose what to eat. It also persuades policymakers and companies to make meaningful changes for animals.
A GLOBAL IMPACT
Since we were founded in 2006, Animal Equality investigators have filmed inside more than 800 factory farms and slaughterhouses across 13 countries. The footage we have obtained has helped launch several major campaigns that have changed the world for animals.
Several of our investigations have been first of their kind looks into the secretive animal agriculture industry. In 2008, Animal Equality made history when we became the first organization to infiltrate slaughterhouses in Spain. In both Mexico and Brazil, we conducted the first-ever investigations into the cruel egg industry, igniting conversations about the way animals are treated.
CREATING PROGRESS FOR ANIMALS
Our investigations have helped inform the legislative process in several countries. Following an Animal Equality investigation, we introduced legislation to the Mexican Senate that would criminalize cruelty to farmed animals.
At the European Parliament, a measure to develop a ban on cages for rabbits was successfully passed. This was, according to Politico magazine, a direct result of Animal Equality’s work.
Investigations are also an important tool for shutting down animal exploitation facilities. Following Animal Equality investigations, authorities ordered the closure of a foie gras farm in Spain and a pig farm in the UK.
It was also our investigations that helped achieve historic sentences for workers convicted of farmed animal cruelty in both Spain and the UK.
TRAILBLAZING TECHNIQUES
Our brave investigators have a mission: exposing animal cruelty. They go to great lengths to ensure that defenseless animals are given a voice. Investigators document the shocking yet standard practices on factory farms by going undercover.
Combining social media with advanced technologies, they live stream hidden camera footage over the Internet. They go underwater to film the brutal killing of tuna and take to the sky with drones to film the environmental impacts of industrial farming. The pioneering use of 360-degree cameras gives the global public a virtual first-hand view inside cruel factory farms. It is changing people’s attitudes towards farmed animals.
Hidden cameras
Animal Equality uses the latest hidden camera technology to bring animal abuse to light around the world. Wired with the latest devices, we have repeatedly uncovered that there is no such thing as humane factory farming.
Underwater filming
Our brave team of investigators also goes underwater to capture shocking images of cruelty. This endeavor is challenging but necessary, as aquatic animals are some of the most abused on the planet. Animal Equality meets these unique difficulties with creativity and by using modern devices. Our underwater work has uncovered cruelty, such as the killing of tuna in Carloforte, Italy, a first-of-its-kind investigation that was featured in the documentary Cowspiracy.
360-degree virtual reality
As technology advances so do we, that is why Animal Equality has pioneered the use of 360-degree virtual reality cameras to film animal abuse. Animal Equality was the first organization to shoot with 360 cameras and release virtual reality films, giving viewers a uniquely realistic perspective inside farms and slaughterhouses.
Drone filming
Using these modern devices to film waste pools from the air to prove the massive pollution of factory farming in Spain and Italy or to show the cruelty behind the largest ritual killing in the world in Nepal, Animal Equality reaches the sky to help animals around the world.
HOW TO HELP ANIMALS
Exposing the cruelty of factory farming is only possible with your help.
THE NUMBERS
HIGHLIGHTED INVESTIGATIONS
China, India, and Vietnam
Wet Animal Markets Exposed
Our investigators visited live animal markets in China, Vietnam, and India and witnessed animals such as deer, raccoons, crocodiles, cats, and dogs living in cramped, filthy conditions, suffering from dehydration, starvation and disease. The animals were killed on the spot for customers who wanted to buy fresh meat. These markets are not only cruel, but they also have been the source of documented disease outbreaks, including SARS, and researchers now believe that COVID-19 likely originated from a wet market. We’re urging the United Nations to view our essential footage and recommend banning all wet markets that sell animals.
Mexico
Lambs Tormented in “Underground” Slaughterhouses
Animal Equality investigators in Mexico exposed the torment and killings of lambs and sheep in backyard pens and unregulated slaughterhouses. Our footage shows these sensitive animals killed while fully conscious, lambs tied up and decapitated, animals killed in full view of each other, and injured animals left to bleed to death. Our team in Mexico is now working with lawmakers to criminalize these slaughterhouses and hold those who run them accountable.
Nepal
Animals in Massive Ritual Slaughter of Gadhimai
Our investigators used drone cameras to document how thousands of buffaloes, goats, and pigeons were mutilated and violently killed during the Gadhimai festival’s latest event in 2019. The Gadhimai Festival hosts the world’s largest ritual animal slaughter and happens every five years. Despite the Nepalese government declaring that ritual slaughter had been banned, the ban was not enforced, and the brutal killings continued. Animal Equality’s work, along with other animal protection organizations, reduced the number of animals killed by raising awareness—and thus public outcry—surrounding the event. We worked with the Red Cross to set up a blood donation drive at the event so that participants could honor the deity by spilling their own blood instead of an animal’s blood.
United States
Severe Neglect at Nebraska Calf Ranch
Shocking scenes of prolonged suffering and neglect were brought to light following our investigator’s time at Summit Calf Ranch in Nebraska, a facility housing 11,000 calves and owned by Tuls Dairy a supplier of Bel Brands, producer of Babybel and The Laughing Cow cheese. Many calves froze to death and endured repeated exposure to extreme temperatures, resulting in frozen limbs and the separation of the hoof from the leg of animals. Some calves died in agony. We turned over our evidence to authorities and are urging criminal charges against those involved.
Italy
Tunas Fight for Their Lives
Every Spring in Italy, bluefin tunas are caught in traps as they migrate to their breeding grounds. Our investigation, which utilized both underwater and above-water photography, documented these large animals pushed to the water’s surface, harpooned and stabbed as they thrashed about and struggled. The investigation shows the plight of tunas, who aren’t protected by any humane slaughter laws or regulations.
Spain
Turkey Industry Exposed
The footage captured by Animal Equality investigators in hatcheries, factory farms and slaughterhouses in Spain depict the cruelties that are the norm in the meat industry in the United States. We documented that in turkey hatcheries, the baby birds who do not meet the standards required by the industry are discarded alive along with the eggshells. They are killed in the trash containers, crushed while still conscious soon after seeing the world for the first time. Those who enter into the industry will have part of their sensitive beaks seared off and will be forced to live in confinement until they’re slaughtered.
Italy
Behind Buffalo Mozzarella
Exclusive mages shot by our investigators, along with testimonials we collected from people with first-hand knowledge of the conditions on Italy’s buffalo mozzarella farms showed the world that dairy is cruel no matter where it’s produced or from which animal it’s taken from. We exposed cows being forced to live in knee-deep mud and feces, baby buffalos left to die of hunger and thirst after being taken from their mothers, and animals forced to live alongside the dead bodies of others.
Italy
Rabbit slaughterhouse exposed
An Animal Equality investigator obtained images of a rabbit slaughterhouse while working undercover in a facility in Lombardy, Italy.
United Kingdom
Hens left to suffer and die in cages for eggs sold in the UK
An investigation by Animal Equality reveals scenes of severe animal suffering on a Dorset farm supplying ‘Big & Fresh’ eggs stocked by major UK retailers. Half a million birds were kept in metal cages in windowless sheds. Hidden camera footage reveals the caged hens were only checked on once in four days by farm staff, a clear violation of welfare laws.
Italy
Months-Long Investigation Exposed Pig Farm in Italy
Animal Equality’s team in Italy, in collaboration with the country’s national media outlet Tg2, exposed a farm that raised pigs for meat. Despite the region’s animal welfare laws, the thousands of pigs living on the farm were forced to endure conditions including decomposing and mummified bodies of pigs present, a worker who killed a pig by throwing him or her against a wall, and pigs forced to live in cages so small that they could hardly move, resulting in them being covered with wounds and bedsores.
Documenting the reality of animals in factory farms helps to create positive change for these animals. Being an undercover investigator has been the most rewarding challenge of my life.
“Susan”
Undercover investigator
