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We Animals

@weanimals

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Over a decade of global animal photojournalism.
Because witnessing is where change begins.

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Our work is part of a global effort to end animal suffering at the hands of humans. We believe seeing is an essential step in this collective effort to repair our species’ broken relationship with non-human beings.

“Political activist Susan Sontag wrote at length about looking at the suffering of others. Who should look? When, and why? The answer that she and many others came to, is that anyone who can help should look.

Looking at the suffering of animals is perhaps especially hard. To look at the suffering of animals is to face our complicity in it – we eat animals, we wear them, we test our medicines on them, and we put them in cages and arenas as entertainment.

For over 25 years, millions of people have seen and been moved by our work. With the number of animals inside factory farms growing, wild animal populations declining, and the world facing a climate crisis, now is the time to amplify our efforts.” – Jo-Anne McArthur, We Animals Founder, President, and Animal Photojournalist

Our updated look and renewed commitment reflect our continued dedication to animal advocacy. If you missed it, explore the changes and what they mean for our mission. Learn more here at the link in our @weanimals bio. by @weanimals

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Want to learn more about how you can support our mission? Comment "GIVE", and we'll send a direct link to your inbox.

weanimals.org by @weanimals

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19 hours ago

The chickens are still peeping like babies when they're slaughtered.

Photojournalist @joannemcarthurphotography has seen it in factory farm after factory farm. Chickens bred so heavy their own legs break beneath them.

#BanFrankenchickens #EndFactoryFarming #ProjectSlingshot #WeAnimals #JoAnnMcArthur by @weanimals

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At a hatchery in Indonesia, photojournalist Ulet Ifansasti captured a rarely documented practice in shrimp production called eyestalk ablation.

The procedure, which involves amputating one eyestalk from female breeding shrimp to stimulate egg production, is widely used in commercial shrimp hatcheries worldwide.

As scientific evidence continues to show that decapod crustaceans, including shrimp, can experience pain and distress, eyestalk ablation has come under increasing scrutiny from researchers and animal welfare experts.

📷: Undisclosed location, East Java, Indonesia, 2026. Ulet Ifansasti (@uletifan) / Animal Welfare Observatory (@observatorioba) / We Animals

Photos:
1. A female broodstock shrimp's eyestalk is steadied with a stick before it is cut from her body by a pair of scissors during the ablation process at a shrimp hatchery.
2. A female broodstock shrimp's eyestalk is cut off with a pair of scissors during the ablation process at a shrimp hatchery.
3. A severed eyestalk from a female broodstock shrimp sits in the scissors used to remove it during the ablation process at a shrimp hatchery.
4. Two dead female broodstock shrimp at a shrimp hatchery. The individual on the right has a visibly ablated eyestalk.
5. Scissors are heated over an open flame in preparation for the ablation process of female broodstock shrimp at a shrimp hatchery.
6. A female broodstock shrimp with a severed eyestalk after it was cut off during the ablation process at a shrimp hatchery. by @weanimals

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What does it look like inside one of the world's largest shrimp industries?

Although shrimp have been farmed in Indonesia for centuries, today's industry operates on an entirely different scale.

Stretching across more than 81,000 kilometres of coastline, the world's largest archipelago is now also the world's fourth-largest exporter of farmed shrimp, producing close to one million tonnes annually. Much of that production is supplied to markets in the United States and Japan.

Through drone photography and video, an immense landscape comes into view: ponds stretching toward the horizon, aerators churning the water day and night, and workers monitoring water quality, feeding shrimp, and tracking their growth during a cycle that typically lasts around 100 days.

Only from above does the true scale of the industry become clear.

Each pond holds thousands of individual shrimp whose lives are rarely documented.

Follow along this week as we continue documenting the lives of shrimp and the realities of industrial shrimp farming in Indonesia.

📷: Undisclosed location, East Java, Indonesia, 2026. Ulet Ifansasti (@uletifan) / Animal Welfare Observatory / We Animals

1-2. Numerous murky rearing ponds, some with water aerators, at a large-scale coastal shrimp farm.
3 . A row of concrete tanks sits inside an open shed at a shrimp hatchery.
4-5. Bags of shrimp feed manufactured by PT Matahari Sakti sit stacked in a work and storage area at a shrimp farm
6. A worker feeds marine worms to female broodstock shrimp held in tanks at a shrimp hatchery. 7-8. Shrimp, some struggling, lie on the bottom of a net at a shrimp farm. They have been captured from a rearing pond, so their development can be examined.
9. Turbines used to aerate water with oxygen float in a rearing pond at a shrimp farm. taken in East Java Indonesia by @weanimals

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4 days ago

This is where millions of farmed shrimp begin their lives.

A female broodstock shrimp, also known as a "mother shrimp", wears a tag around her eyestalk while she swims in a temperature and light-controlled tank at a shrimp laboratory.

This large Ecuadorian shrimp laboratory produces larval and postlarval shrimp for sale to shrimp farms, operating a controlled infrastructure that includes laboratory equipment, biosecurity measures, and hundreds of tanks.

The facility manages the full reproductive cycle of the shrimp. Before spawning, pregnant female shrimp are first acclimated in temperature and light-controlled tanks for several days. Their eggs hatch into nauplii, the initial developmental stage, which then grow into the larvae and postlarvae sold to shrimp farms.

According to staff, the facility no longer practices eyestalk ablation on broodstock females after determining that the practice provided minimal benefit for ovary stimulation. Instead, reproduction is managed through controlled nutrition and genetic breeding methods that avoid inbreeding between parent lineages. This controlled breeding program allows the facility to produce larger quantities in less time compared to smaller-scale operations.

According to a source at the facility, millions of nauplii are produced in the laboratory daily.

📷: Undisclosed location, San Pablo, Santa Elena Province, Ecuador, 2025. Marcos Zegers (@marcoszegers) / Animal Welfare Observatory / We Animals by @weanimals

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Our demand for cheap shrimp is destroying Ecuador’s mangroves, according to a new investigation.

Shrimp are among the most numerous animals raised by humans, with billions of individuals bred and killed every year, yet they remain among the least visible.

Recently, photojournalist Marcos Zegers documented shrimp farming in Ecuador at nearly every stage of production—from hatcheries producing millions of larvae each day to grow-out ponds stretching across hundreds of hectares, all the way down to processing plants where shrimp are peeled, frozen and packed for export.

The true scale of Ecuador’s shrimp industry is difficult to grasp from the ground. Travelling by boat through Ecuador's coastal estuaries, mangroves appear to frame the waterways; their dense roots create the impression of an intact ecosystem. It is only from the air that another landscape emerges: hundreds of shrimp ponds stretching across the coastline in a vast network of earthen berms, canals and pumping stations.

"The aerial views made it possible to understand the true scale of shrimp farming."

- Marcos Zegers, photojournalist

On July 8, in collaboration with Foodrise and supported by We Animals images, Animal Welfare Observatory released a scientific and technical report that uncovers the severe environmental, climate, and labour exploitation hidden behind Europe's mass consumption of farmed shrimp.

📷: Ecuador, 2025. Marcos Zegers (@marcoszegers ) / Animal Welfare Observatory / We Animals

🔗Comment “LINK” and we’ll send you the report. by @weanimals

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🔴🦐 Pensamos que lo que comemos no tiene consecuencias.

Pero detrás de la cría del langostino/camarón en Asia hay prácticas que no solemos ver.
Como cortarles un ojo a las hembras para alterar su reproducción.

Y es una salvajada.

España es el principal importador y consumidor de la UE..
Y estamos dejando que esto pase.

Comparte este vídeo para que podamos hacer algo desde el Observatorio de Bienestar Animal. by @weanimals

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Born and raised in Beaumont, Alberta, the Calgary Stampede was a summertime fixture of Cynthia Hughes’ childhood—the parades, pancake breakfasts, line dancing, and all the festive chaos of a globally renowned good ‘ol giddyup of a party.

This year, as a photojournalist with We Animals, Cynthia applied for media accreditation to photograph the Stampede.

As someone who has spent years documenting animals—their beauty and their suffering—Cynthia knows that meaningful storytelling happens in the tension between those things. And the Stampede is both: a celebration of Western heritage and a site of documented animal injuries and deaths. That complexity deserves transparency and discussion.

She simply wanted to document the event. But the Stampede ignored her request and refused accreditation, and despite following up, she’s received no response.

If the Stampede is proud of how it treats animals, it shouldn’t be afraid of a camera.

Read the full story at the link in our @weanimals bio, or comment "Rodeo" and we'll send you the link directly. by @weanimals

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15 days ago

He would leave if he could.

In this breakaway roping event, a calf retreats from the chute, seeking refuge in the pens behind the arena.

Tradition is no excuse for exploitation. It is time for our traditions to evolve.

#SayNoToRodeo

🎥: Bulls, Broncs & Barrels, Coombs, British Columbia, Canada, 2024. Jordan Rivers / We Animals by @weanimals

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16 days ago

What happened in 30 seconds before the gates open?

At this two-day community rodeo, horses, bulls, small cows, and calves were transported by truck and ferry from several hours away for bronc, bull, and steer-riding competitions, as well as breakaway roping.

During the day, they were confined to holding pens, including one beneath a busy beer garden. At night, even when some animals were allowed to roam the empty arena, they remained surrounded by fairground noise and social activity.

Animals were observed balking, refusing to enter the chutes, or trying to retreat. Handlers frequently jabbed them with sorting sticks, and bulls were often prodded with electric devices.

Fear and distress were visible: bellowing, weaving, lip licking, kicking, sweating, trembling.

In one instance, a horse collapsed in a bucking chute and was dragged out by his front legs. Out of view, a handler kicked the horse in the head to make him stand. Calves were hand-smacked and forced into chute gates, then left in pens near a loud generator.

By the end of the event, several animals were left with cut or scraped skin.

This is not an exception. It happens at hundreds of rodeos across North America each year.

Help us share what happens inside the chutes.
#SayNoToRodeo #WeAnimals

🎥: Bulls, Broncs & Barrels, Coombs, British Columbia, Canada, 2024. Jordan Rivers / We Animals taken in Coombs by @weanimals

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