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2020 MID-YEAR ACHIEVEMENTS REPORT

Friends, supporters, and allies,

As we pause and look back at the first half of the year, I am amazed at what we’ve been able to accomplish together for farmed animals.

The last few months have brought unexpected and unprecedented challenges. In response to the Coronavirus pandemic, Animal Equality launched a worldwide campaign and petition calling for the immediate closure of cruel and dangerous wet markets, the suspected origin of COVID-19. The petition to the United Nations has already received nearly 500,000 signatures. We’ve released four groundbreaking investigations in India, China, and Spain. Additionally, our corporate outreach secured 13 policy commitments from companies that will impact nearly 3.5 million hens and chickens each year.

Our work on behalf of farmed animals would not be possible without your support. With your help, we are impacting the lives of hundreds of millions of farmed animals around the world and will continue to make strides in the months to come. Thank you for your ongoing support!

In gratitude,

Sharon Núñez

Sharon signature
President, Animal Equality

EXPOSING CRUELTY THROUGH INVESTIGATIONS

Animal Equality presented FOUR undercover investigations, exposing cruelty to animals used for meat in wet markets, during transport, and on factory farms worldwide.

4

INVESTIGATIONS PRESENTED

368+ MILLION

INVESTIGATIVE FOOTAGE REACH

China, Vietnam, India

Global Campaign to Ban Wet Markets

Animal Equality launched a worldwide campaign and petition calling for the immediate closure of wet markets across the globe. Experts believe that COVID-19 (in addition to other pandemics like SARS and MERS) likely originated in wet markets in Wuhan, which get their name in part from the blood that soaks the stalls’ floors after live animals are killed once purchased. Not only do these markets pose an immediate danger to humans, but they are also intensely cruel to animals.

In exclusive footage shot by Animal Equality at wet markets in China, Vietnam, and India, animals such as deer, raccoons, crocodiles, and dogs are shown living in filthy conditions, suffering from dehydration, starvation, and disease.

The petition, urging on the United Nations to ban all wet markets, has so far reached nearly 500,000 signatures. The campaign has also received celebrity endorsements from Evanna Lynch, Stephen Fry, Bryan Adams, and Peter Egan.

Spain

CHICKENS SUFFER ON SPANISH FACTORY FARM

Animal Equality in Spain visited the same chicken farm during different life stages of the chicken’s development, revealing the intense suffering behind their unnatural rapid growth and deplorable living conditions. We were accompanied by Ana Pardo de Vera, Chief Editor and award-winning journalist from Público, one of Spain’s most important media outlets. The investigation appeared on national TV and print and reached a potential audience of 71 million. Animal Equality exposed horrifying cruelties, including:

  • Collapsed chickens unable to reach the feeders, dying of starvation
  • Chickens covered in ammonia burns due to accumulated feces
  • Deplorable hygienic conditions: chickens forced to live alongside dead ones, with completely moldy drinking troughs

Spain

TORMENT OF ANIMALS SHIPPED FOR SLAUGHTER

Animal Equality released an investigation documenting the painful live transport of lambs from Spanish farms to the Middle East, to meet the demand for meat coinciding with Ramadan and the feast of the Sacrifice of the Lamb. Our investigators exposed the following cruelties:

  • Tens of thousands of lambs shipped hundreds of miles by truck to Spanish port cities and then forced to travel by sea, with journeys lasting up to ten days
  • Workers throwing the animals and grabbing them by their legs to prevent them from retreating during travel
  • Lambs, less than a year old, slaughtered while fully conscious

A complaint has been lodged with the Ministry of Agriculture about the irregularities committed and prohibited in the Regulation on the Transport of Animals in the European Union and they have confirmed that they will investigate further.

Gadhimai Temple, Nepal

ANIMAL SACRIFICE CONTINUES

Animal Equality released a follow-up investigation revealing thousands of animals mutilated and slaughtered at the Gadhimai Temple in Southern Nepal at an event held in conjunction with the 2019 Gadhimai festival. Our investigators documented the horrific killing of conscious goats by devotees, with people shown horrifically decapitating the animals, with dozens of blows needed to complete the brutal killing. In other violent scenes, pigeons had their wings clipped and were thrown on to the rooftop of the temple to be later slaughtered for their meat. At the multiple events held at the Gadhimai Temple, Animal Equality’s investigative teams documented many more atrocities, including:

  • sexual abuse of some of the animals at the temple
  • animals transported to the temple in unsafe and unhygienic conditions
  • devotees cutting the ears off goats and buffaloes and leaving them to bleed

Progress for Farmed Animals

Our team is working hard to change the world for farmed animals by working with the world’s largest corporations to implement stronger animal protection policies and engaging in proactive legal initiatives.

Animal Equality, alongside Mexican Senator Jesusa Rodriguez, submitted a legislative initiative in the country that seeks to ban illegal slaughterhouses and live animal markets and prohibit the sale of live animals at these facilities.

Thanks to the work of a coalition of animal protection groups including Animal Equality, new legislation in Colorado banning the use of cages for egg-laying hens has been signed into law. In addition, the law will also ban the sale of eggs from caged hens sold within the state.

Animal Equality is suing the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to strike down its unlawful new rule that allows slaughter operations to kill unlimited numbers of pigs per hour and also shifts certain responsibilities from federal inspectors to the slaughterhouse’s own employees.

Animal Equality has intervened in two separate lawsuits brought by various meat industry groups attempting to strike down provisions of California’s Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act, also known as Proposition 12.

As a result of continuous lobby work and collection of evidence from coalition members including Animal Equality, the European Parliament approved the introduction of a Committee of Inquiry on live transport. The Committee will evaluate the main obstacles that currently prevent the application of the Transport Regulation, as well as examine the responsibilities of the European Union Commission and Member States in implementing and enforcing the Union rules.

3.5+ MILLION

ANIMALS IMPACTED BY CORPORATE WORK

446

VOLUNTEER HOURS LOGGED

CORPORATE OUTREACH

Animal Equality convinced 13 companies worldwide to adopt animal protection policies that will reduce the suffering of more than 3.5 million chickens used for meat and eggs each year. Animal Equality reached a new milestone this year, now having secured over 150 policy commitments from companies that will impact nearly 39 million hens and chickens worldwide!

Raising Awareness

10,600

VIRTUAL REALITY PROJECT REACH

652,304

LOVE VEG NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS

FACTORY FARMING PROTEST WITH JOAQUIN PHOENIX

Animal advocate and actor, Joaquin Phoenix, joined Animal Equality in an international protest against factory farming in advance of the 73rd BAFTA ceremony. Alongside Animal Equality activists and staff, Joaquin dropped a 390 square-foot banner from the iconic Tower Bridge in London that read “Factory farming is destroying our planet. Go vegan.” as a plea to the public to break its dependence on animal products.

MEDIA & EVENTS

  • We conducted educational outreach at numerous events worldwide, including the Social and Food Sustainability Forum in Mexico, the Plant-Powered Expo in the United Kingdom (UK), Ahimsa Festival in Mumbai, India as well as several schools and universities in the US, the UK, and India. We continue to provide iAnimal videos for outside groups and activists to use, including I’dECO, Yale-NUS College’s sustainability student group, in Singapore.
  • We engaged supporters in several online actions including a global tweetstorm calling for a ban on live animal markets, and coalition-wide tweetstorms calling on companies like McDonald’s and Subway to adopt meaningful commitments for animals.
  • We released free Love Veg e-cookbooks in the UK and Mexico.
  • Our work was featured in major media outlets around the world.

We can’t do this alone.
Join the Animal Allies.

We need your support more than ever. Please join Animal Equality’s Animal Allies for as little as $5 a month and help animals throughout the year.

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