An investigator documents a Canadian turkey factory farm.
Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals Media

Rather than passing laws to curtail brutality on factory farms and during transportation, lawmakers in Alberta, Ontario, and PEI have enacted legislation targeting activists and journalists working to expose systematic violence. And now, in Manitoba.

Jo-Anne spoke to Sentient Media this month about ag-gag laws in Canada: who’s behind them, why they’re so problematic, and what’s at stake for animals and journalism. This troubling trend tries to limit what we can show you as animal photojournalists—and we’re speaking out.

Learn about Canada’s Ag-gag

Gwenna Hunter packs fresh local produce into bags at a vegan aid program in LA with Vegan Outreach.
Nikki Ritcher / #unboundproject / We Animals Media

Unbound is Back

It’s been a minute, but with bigger goals and a newly assembled advisory panel, the Unbound Project is back to celebrate women driving animal advocacy.

Unbound’s latest profile is Gwenna Hunter. A human- and animal-rights activist in LA, she organizes both for Black lives and animal lives. “If you know what it’s like to suffer, and you can stand in that place, at that moment, you don’t want anyone else to feel that way either.” Human or animal.

Gwenna’s Advocacy

From National Geographic, August 2021.
Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals Media

NatGeo + WAM

You’ll find our photos in National Geographic’s latest story on California’s upcoming changes to pig confinement. Voters pulled through for pregnant pigs: no more gestation crates, and factory farm owners have to reckon with the will of the people more eager to see animals as individuals. We take heart in seeing such a household name in conservation and education continuing to turn their attention to the hidden animals among us—animals whose stories we’ll continue to tell.

California’s Pigs

A cow grazes while thick smoke from British Columbia wildfires billows in the background.
We Animals Media

No matter how much animal agriculture tries to gag, silence and intimidate, we will not stop documenting the animals they keep hidden. Will you help us continue our mission?

Support Animal Stories

Chris Shoebridge in the field.
Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals Media

Interview with investigator and filmmaker Chris Shoebridge

Vegan Fried Chick*n. Celebrity reactions to factory farms. Shooting film and video at the same time (harder than you think if you don’t do either). We had the chance to ask Chris Shoebridge, the filmmaker and WAM contributor behind Invisible, about all of this. The fascinating interview features Chris’s arresting footage of, and reaction series about, chicken farming in the UK. Learn about the projects and techniques of an animal advocate skilled behind the camera.

Chris’s Interview + Footage

In Case You Missed It

Martin Rowe, co-founder of Lantern Media and Publishing and long-time friend of WAM, just wrote a book of epic poetry inspired by and featuring Jo-Anne’s photography titled The Animals Are Leaving Us. The words are arresting and the photographs haunting. The book is available for purchase now and Martin is generously giving all proceeds directly to WAM to support our animal photojournalism.

Buy the Book

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An investigator documents a Canadian turkey factory farm. Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals Media

Gwenna Hunter packs fresh local produce into bags at a vegan aid program in LA with Vegan Outreach. Nikki Ritcher / #unboundproject / We Animals Media