Outcomes and Achievements

We achieve nothing alone. Our work is used by organizations, individuals, educators, and media outlets worldwide in support of their initiatives to create change for animals. The impact of an image is notoriously difficult to measure, but our hope remains that each of our photographs has the power to shape conversations and will further political, economic, and moral progress in the hands of those who use them. Below are highlights of only some of the victories our work has helped make possible.

1400+

Number of organizations that have benefited from our work

1600+

Number of times our visuals have appeared in media since 2017

150+

Number of countries where our visuals have been used

Australia bans live sheep exports

Sheep being loaded onto trucks from the saleyards. Ballarat, Australia, 2013. Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals Media

We Animals Media visuals have been used regularly by Australian NGOs for their ongoing live export campaigns. In May 2024, these efforts led to Australia’s announcement of a ban on live sheep exports due to animal welfare concerns. On July 1, this historic legislation was officially passed by Parliament and will take effect from May 1, 2028.

Taiwan declares ban on new battery cage duck farms

We Animals Media collaborated with the Environment & Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST) in 2018 to document caged laying duck farms in Taiwan. In 2019, EAST revealed the findings from this investigation in a campaign calling on the Council of Agriculture to draft guidelines for the humane farming of ducks. The campaign, which featured our visuals extensively, attracted widespread media coverage and kickstarted negotiations with the government. On December 30, 2021, after sustained pressure on elected officials, Taiwan issued a ban on new battery cage farms for egg-laying ducks. This is believed to be the first ban on cages for laying ducks at a national level.

The Rise of Caged Duck Farming in Taiwan

British Columbia will permanently phase out mink farms

Mink in a very small cage at a fur farm in British Columbia. Canada, 2014. Jo-Anne McArthur / #MakeFurHistory / We Animals Media

Canadian animal law non-profit Animal Justice has used our visuals extensively throughout their initiatives. Of note most recently was their use of our mink farming images to promote a ban on fur farms across Canada. In November 2021, British Columbia announced it was banning mink farms in the province due to public health risks related to COVID-19 outbreaks—thanks to the work of many organizations. The lawyers at Animal Justice will continue working hard to outlaw fur farms on the national level.

 

Expedia Group drops sale of captive dolphin shows

Photographing a lone dolphin at Sea Life Park in Hawaii. USA, 2012. Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals Media

In October 2021, World Animal Protection used one of our visuals in a poster campaign across Seattle to put pressure on the travel company Expedia Group to stop selling tickets to captive dolphin shows. Over 100 posters were displayed in 25 locations around the city. Just three weeks after launching the posters in Seattle, Expedia Group announced its new animal welfare policy dropping captive dolphin shows. World Animal Protection reports that it was a combination of campaign tactics that influenced this change and that this powerful image of a lone dolphin in captivity on the campaign poster helped to increase pressure on the company.

 

Dairy cow welfare in Taiwan

Dairy cows. Taiwan, 2019. Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals Media

In early 2019, We Animals Media collaborated with the Environment & Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST) to document conditions on Taiwanese dairy farms. EAST used visuals from this investigation extensively throughout their campaign, which called on the Council of Agriculture to address serious animal welfare concerns within the country’s dairy industry. In 2021, the campaign was successful in prompting Taiwan’s government to develop and release formal guidelines for the welfare of dairy cows. 

 

Memorializing animals in the anthropocene in our first self-published book

In November 2020, We Animals Media released a first-of-its-kind book of animal photojournalism, HIDDEN: Animals in the Anthropocene. The book launched a fundraising campaign in April 2020 and was fully funded in just over 72 hours. It has since won Photography Book of the Year and Outstanding Book of the Year—Most Likely to Save the Planet.

Learn more about HIDDEN
Wet markets and COVID-19
In 2020, our team was able to distribute hundreds of wet market images and clips to organizations educating audiences on the links between animal agriculture and zoological diseases during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, including the UN Environment Programme’s short video on the Coronavirus.
An Inside Look at Asian Wet Markets
Towards an end to fish binding in Taiwan
We Animals Media collaborated with the Environment & Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST) in 2018 to document the practice of fish binding. EAST’s campaign reached more than one million people, and initiated meetings at multiple levels of government to address the issue of aquatic animal welfare. As a result, the Marine Bureau of the Kaohsiung City Government is issuing guidance to encourage vendors to end the practice.
Prolonging Death: The Practice of Fish Tethering in Asia
Pig clubbing and the closure of slaughterhouses in Thailand and Cambodia
In collaboration with local advocacy groups, We Animals Media published a story in The Guardian about the slaughter of pigs in Thailand and Cambodia that has reached and engaged with audiences worldwide. In direct response to this story, Thailand’s Department of Livestock Development has stated that it is taking action to apply stricter enforcement in slaughterhouses countrywide, a new organization, CATALYST, was born to work on slaughter issues in Thailand, and The Thai Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals informed advocates on the ground that at least three illegal slaughterhouses have been shut down since the release of the story.
We Animals Media: An Expose on Animal Clubbing at Thai Slaughterhouses
Criminal charges at Canadian mink farm
In 2017 We Animals Media images helped lead to the Montreal SPCA’s criminal charges against a fur farmer in Quebec, Canada, for three counts of animal cruelty and neglect. This was the first known animal abuse conviction for fur farming in Canada.
Suspension of macaques trade in Laos
In 2014 We Animals Media (then ‘We Animals’) partnered with the documentary film Maximum Tolerated Dose and Cruelty Free International (then ‘BUAV’) to cover monkey breeding facilities in South East Asia. WAM’s work was used by BUAV with the Species Survival Network at the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species in Geneva, Switzerland, resulting in the suspension of trade of long-tailed macaques in Laos. To this day, there continues to be no official trade in long-tailed macaques out of Laos.

 

Have our images helped you?

We love knowing the difference our animal photojournalism is making in the world, and we are interested in cataloging successful outcomes from initiatives that have used our stock images and video. Let us know how We Animals Media has helped your work.
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