We Animals
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We advocate for animals through photojournalism. We expose. We educate. We empower. Learn more about our work: www.weanimals.org
Our global investigations and stories expose our complex relationships with animals, create ethical and cultural shifts in society, and empower human capacity for compassion and change. The animals we eat, wear, use for entertainment, research, tradition, and work are often hidden from view, both physically and metaphorically. Unwaveringly, we use our cameras not just to look at animals but to see
In intensive aquaculture, fish are confined in tightly packed sea cages and net pens. These intensive operations, also called fish farms, contribute to disease transmission, impact surrounding ecosystems, and place additional pressure on wild marine life. They also cause enormous pain and suffering for the individuals inside the nets.
With global demand for fish rising, fish farming continues to expand, introducing complex environmental challenges across our oceans.
We reveal these realities to provide context for what is happening beneath the surface, where scale, suffering, and consequences are often out of view.
Save this post to help bring these realities into focus and join us for a discussion in the comments: What actions can we take for our oceans today?
Videos:
1-3. Thirty-meter-wide, four-meter-deep cages are each equipped with an automatic feeder for distributing food to the fish. Nearly all the fish exhibited signs of disease or physical trauma, primarily on their fins and skin. Fish have highly sensitive pain receptors in their skin, suggesting such injuries may be extremely painful. Undisclosed, Finland, 2024. Rontti Varjola / We Animals
4. Multiple dead rainbow trout float amid living fish inside a sea cage at an inshore fish farm. Undisclosed location, Finland, 2024. Benjamin Blomstedt ( ) / We Animals
05/06/2026
Many private zoo owners describe themselves as animal lovers. Some call the lions and tigers they keep their family members.
But what happens when a wild animal's life is reduced to a cage, a chain, or a photo opportunity?
While documenting private big-cat zoos in Pakistan, photojournalist Lucien Migné found lions and tigers living in cramped enclosures, often with little room to express natural behaviours. In the wild, tigers can roam territories spanning hundreds of square kilometres. Some of the animals he photographed were confined to spaces only a few metres across.
He also documented cubs being continuously approached by visitors, touched, photographed, and handled throughout the day.'
"What struck me most was the tiny enclosure in which one of the adult big cats is kept permanently. Seeing a powerful animal confined to such a small space was unsettling and difficult to process."
— Lucien Migné
These photographs offer a rare glimpse into a world that many people never see.
Read our newly published editorial: Lions and Tigers in Cages: Documenting Pakistan’s Private Big-cat Zoos: https://weanimals.org/project/lions-and-tigers-in-cages-documenting-pakistans-private-big-cat-zoos/
📸: Animal Adventure Zoo, Karachi, Sindh Province, Pakistan, 2026. Lucien Migné (Lucien Migné) / We Animals
All animals deserve to feel safe.
For billions of farmed animals, safety is never guaranteed. For these lucky few, it is.
They are the lucky ones—those rescued and experiencing love, safety and compassion at sanctuaries—representing individuals just like them still waiting for a different life.
Share their stories. 🧡
📷:
Kelly Dinham / Edgar’s Mission / We Animals
Molly Condit / LEAP / We Animals
02/06/2026
Big news.
Long Shadow has been shortlisted for the prestigious Photojournalism Prize (PJP).
Supported through the We Animals Fellowship, photographer Selene Magnolia Gatti’s long-term project titled "Long Shadow" confronts industrial farming in Europe—examining its impact on animals, the environment, and human life.
“Intensive farming is the predominant method in Europe and worldwide to produce the meat, dairy products, and eggs that arrive on people’s tables daily. In 2024, it was also unanimously recognised as one of the top polluting industries worldwide, generating nearly 15% of total greenhouse gas emissions. However, the impact of livestock farming on the immediate environment remains relatively unexplored.”
— Selene Magnolia Gatti, photojournalist
We are proud to share that Long Shadow is shortlisted for the Photojournalism Prize and is also being considered for the People’s Choice Award, decided by public vote.
Congratulations, S. Magnolia Gatti Photography
➡️Help bring this story to a wider audience: https://photojournalismprize.com/social/zoom.php?eid=16-84851-26
01/06/2026
No cries or panicked screams echo when a fish is gutted alive or suffocates slowly. Their suffering can be easy to overlook because it doesn’t sound like the suffering we’re wired to recognize. Photographs like these force a pause. In that pause, individual animals we have learned to unsee become visible again.
On assignment with the non-profit Samayu, We Animals photojournalist Shatabdi Chakrabarti recently documented fish harvests and markets across Andhra Pradesh, India. India’s aquaculture industry has expanded rapidly since the 1980s, nowhere more visibly than in Andhra Pradesh, now the country’s largest aquaculture-producing state. Across the region, former rice fields have become fish ponds, while mangrove ecosystems have been cleared and reshaped into aquafarms.
Read our latest story: Fish Die Quietly: Scenes from Fish Harvesting in India➡️ https://weanimals.org/project/fish-die-quietly-scenes-from-fish-harvesting-in-india/
📸: A worker stands on top of a live rohu, one of many suffocating on the ground, during a morning harvest at a fish farm. Undisclosed location, Seesali Village, Andhra Pradesh, India, 2025. Shatabdi Chakrabarti / Samayu / We Animals
29/05/2026
At the edge of former farmland and mangrove forests in India, fish farms are spreading. The work that happens within them is fast, physical, and rarely seen. Fish are netted, pulled in by hand, sorted, and piled into holding areas where they die from lack of oxygen. Others are packed in ice while still alive.
On assignment with the non-profit Samayu, We Animals photojournalist Shatabdi Chakrabarti recently documented fish harvests and markets across Andhra Pradesh, India. The harvest begins with workers standing waist-deep in aquaculture ponds at sunrise and pulling nets toward shore.
India’s aquaculture industry has expanded rapidly since the 1980s, nowhere more visibly than in Andhra Pradesh, now the country’s largest aquaculture-producing state. Across the region, former rice fields have become fish ponds, while mangrove ecosystems have been cleared and reshaped into aquafarms.
The transformation has been driven by appetite as much as infrastructure. Fish consumption in India has climbed sharply over the past two decades alongside population growth, rising incomes, and changing diets.
Read our editorial: Fish Die Quietly - Scenes from Fish Harvesting in India ⬇️
https://weanimals.org/project/fish-die-quietly-scenes-from-fish-harvesting-in-india/
📸:
Undisclosed location, Seesali Village, Andhra Pradesh, India, 2025. Shatabdi Chakrabarti / Samayu / We Animals
28/05/2026
Should animals have rights?
LSE IQ is the podcast where social scientists and other experts answer one intelligent question. This episode, featuring We Animals founder Jo-Anne McArthur focuses on her journey as a pioneering animal photojournalist and the impact of We Animals.
The conversation explores how photography can expose hidden animal suffering while also inspiring empathy, advocacy, and systemic change.
Listen to the episode to learn about how visual storytelling can play a powerful role in changing the public perception, encouraging empathy, and helping build a more compassionate world for animals.
Thank you have having us, LSE IQ! The London School of Economics and Political Science - LSE
Listen to the podcast, in full, now:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2SAeKx1HW4M40xWglyWY2a?si=7989e97f607d4157&nd=1&dlsi=43dc45d374474f60
Should animals have rights? LSE IQ podcast · Episode
AVA 2026 Recap 🧡
This year’s AVA (The Animal & Vegan Advocacy Summit) brought together advocates, organizations, storytellers, and changemakers from around the world, all united by a shared commitment to animal liberation. And We Animals was thrilled to be part of it once again.
During the opening ceremony, We Animals founder Jo-Anne McArthur introduced keynote speaker Zed Nelson, photographer and author of The Anthropocene Illusion. Her powerful remarks helped frame the event, focusing on the critical importance of bearing witness to animal suffering.
The opening ceremony was followed by a We Animals exhibit: focusing on happy and rescued animals—symbols of who we are all fighting for.
From the palpable energy in the conference halls and the collaborative conversations at our booth, to the streets during the animal rights march, there was a constant sense of connection and forward momentum carried throughout each day.
Thank you to everyone for standing alongside animals this week, and for continuing this critical work long after the conference ends. We look forward to seeing what we achieve together next.
27/05/2026
What does Fantastic Mr. Fox have to do with factory farming?
On the surface, maybe not much.
This Sunday, We Animals had the chance to speak at a sold-out screening at Toronto’s iconic R***e Cinema, as part of the “Don’t Be So Political” series.
Before the charm and whimsy of Wes Anderson’s world, we were invited to introduce another perspective: one grounded in reality. Through animal photojournalism, we explored the lives of animals beyond the screen, and the systems that shape them.
Eva spoke about the importance of documenting animal industries, the power of storytelling to inspire change, and the lose-lose system of factory farming, where both humans and animals suffer. We also reflected on the small, meaningful things each of us can do to help build a kinder world for animals.
Grateful to Zach Wortzman for the invitation, and to the audience who were willing to lean into a conversation that asks us to see differently. The audible gasps in the room when we shared the number of animals factory farmed in Canada (858 million annually) affirmed we were exactly where we needed to be that evening.
A small reminder to fellow advocates: let’s step outside our bubbles more often. That’s where the animals need us most 🧡
21/05/2026
Fish die quietly.
No cries or panicked screams echo when a fish is gutted alive or suffocates slowly. Their suffering can be easy to overlook because it doesn't sound like the suffering we're wired to recognize.
On assignment with the non-profit Samayu, We Animals photojournalist Shatabdi Chakrabarti documented fish harvests and markets across Andhra Pradesh, India. The harvest begins with workers standing waist-deep in aquaculture ponds at sunrise and pulling nets toward shore.
India’s aquaculture industry has expanded rapidly since the 1980s, nowhere more visibly than in Andhra Pradesh, now the country’s largest aquaculture-producing state. Across the region, former rice fields have become fish ponds, while mangrove ecosystems have been cleared and reshaped into aquafarms.
The transformation has been driven by appetite as much as infrastructure. Fish consumption in India has climbed sharply over the past two decades alongside population growth, rising incomes, and changing diets.
Maybe the real story hidden inside industrial fishing and aquaculture is not the vast number of animals involved, but how effectively the scale erases individual visibility.
Photographs and videos like these interrupt that erasure. They force a pause in a system designed around speed, volume, and distance. In that pause, individual animals become visible again.
Watch our latest "Fish Die Quietly" https://ow.ly/PX7750Z2v7T
Fish Die Quietly: Scenes From Fish Harvesting in India - We Animals No cries or panicked screams echo when a fish is gutted alive or suffocates slowly. Their suffering can be easy to overlook because it doesn't sound like the suffering we're wired to recognize. On assignment with the non-profit Samayu, We Animals photojournalist Shatabdi Chakrabarti documented fish....