Grasshopper Catching and Cricket Farming in Indonesia

Grasshopper hunters use wooden sticks to catch grasshoppers in teak trees. With glue on long wooden sticks, grasshoppers are easier to catch. Resha Juhari / We Animals Media

In the Indonesian district of Wonosari, fried grasshoppers (“Walang Goreng”) are a long-standing culinary tradition. Despite being considered pests, grasshoppers play a crucial role in Indonesia’s ecosystem, helping agriculture by eating unwanted vegetation and decaying plant matter, and enriching the soil with their dung.

Our investigator documented the practices of grasshopper hunting and cricket farming in Southeast Asia–up close (very close).

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Hope for Stockton Strays

Fernando Garcia cradles an ailing puppy. Photo: Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals Media

Our Founder Jo-Anne McArthur recently had an unexpected day in Stockton, California. While she was in the area to document activists rescuing chickens from a slaughterhouse, she crossed paths with Fernando Garcia, an unhoused man caring for 28 stray dogs. Watch this heartwarming video to learn more about this surprising day, and how hope can sometimes spring up in the most unexpected of places.

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Donate Your Aeroplan Points

Jo-Anne McArthur / Animal Liberation NSW / We Animals Media

You can donate your Aeroplan Miles to help We Animals Media reduce one of our major expenses: air travel. By donating your miles, you will help our photojournalists and filmmakers get on the front lines of animal suffering. Not an Aeroplan member? Convert your points from Star Alliance and other loyalty programs.

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Meet the Team: Jo-Anne McArthur

Photo: Victoria de Martingny

In our Meet the Team series, we introduce you to the wonderful people working behind the scenes to make We Animals Media what it is today. This month we introduce you to our trailblazing and humble President and Founder, Jo-Anne McArthur.

Get to Know Jo

Cottage Getaway

A peaceful evening on the dock at the Lakewood Lodge cottage in Bancroft. Photo courtesy: Lakewood Lodge

Would you like to get away from it all and support We Animals Media at the same time? Long-time supporters Gurbeen and Erika are generously donating $200 CAD for each booking of their cottage near beautiful Bancroft, Ontario (excluding summer bookings).

For photos, rental rates and details, check out their cottage brochure. Be sure to mention "We Animals" when booking! If you have an idea for a fundraiser, please reach out to Jennifer Auten at development@weanimals.org.

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Photo of the Month: Comfort and Cruelty

A frightened sheep is held on a pallet in a backyard slaughterhouse. The woman who purchased him for slaughter attempts to comfort him in his last moments. Photo: Havva Zorlu

This photo, taken during the Eid al-Adha religious holiday, is powerful because of its contradictions.

A sheep who has been purchased for sacrificial slaughter is lying on a pallet, frozen in terror. Blood from a previous killing soaks into the wood beneath him. The smell must be pungent to his sensitive nose. The delicate hands of the woman who bought him rest gently on his face. She realizes he is afraid and tries to soothe him. Her hands frame his desperate eye as he looks around during his final moments.

This photo invites us to consider the complicated nuances in our ideas and choices. Can a person be cruel and kind at the same time? Why is this woman comforting the sheep during a terrible moment that she herself instigated? The juxtaposition is confusing and surreal.

More of Havva's Work

Fellowship Applications Opening Soon

Animals transported for slaughter from across Europe through the Bulgarian-Turkish border. Photo credit: Jo-Anne McArthur / Eyes On Animals / We Animals Media

On April 1 we will be opening applications for the 2024 We Animals Fellowship. The program will support one Fellow to cover a photo story about animals used for food, a subject significantly underreported in the media.

Beginning in June 2024 for approximately six months, the Fellow will receive funding to cover project costs and a stipend for the duration of the Fellowship.

“My fellowship allowed me to find what I want to do in this life: animal photojournalism. I gained so much experience by focusing only on this important work. I think I have improved the most in the post-shoot phase, for example, with my photo and video selection and editing. I can't express how valuable this opportunity has been.” - Havva Zorlu, 2023 Fellow

Animal Photojournalism Fellowship

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ICYMI: The Brave Women Telling Animal Stories

Historically, women are vastly underrepresented and undervalued in photojournalism, but in the field of animal photojournalism, it’s women who are leading the way. For Women's History Month, we give you a glimpse of the thoughts and actions of women documenting at the front lines of our uses and abuses of animals.

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