Tag: animals

For 16 years, Animal Equality has been working tirelessly to increase protections for animals all across the world. Through shocking investigations, impactful campaigns, and legal advocacy, Animal Equality has exposed how the meat, fish, dairy, and egg industries are profiting from extreme animal abuse. Our work has influenced the adoption of new animal protection laws, and we’ve convinced major companies to place bans on the worst farming practices, helping to spare countless animals from extreme confinement, painful mutilations, and horrific deaths.

But our work is far from over, and we’re gearing up for an exciting year of new campaigns for animals.

Freeing hens from cages

Since the start of our corporate outreach department that was formed in 2016, we’ve made great strides in improving the lives of hens used for eggs by working with major

Last month during an informational hearing, the Senate in Oregon was presented with a legislative proposal to protect farmed fish in the state. Animal Equality’s Legal Advocacy Counsel, Sarah Hanneken, co-presented the initiative that would create minimum welfare standards for fish as the state plans to see an expansion of aquaculture—”factory farming in water.”

How would this legislation protect fish?

The proposed Oregon Aquaculture Act would establish minimal but essential protections for farmed fish:

• Establish more humane slaughtering processes, including stunning prior to slaughter. Current inhumane killing processes include simply taking fish out of the water and allowing them to suffocate on ice, which prolongs the asphyxiation process.
• Set standards to protect native species, ecosystems, and Oregon’s waters by prohibiting fish farming in marine waters, for example. Oregon would join its neighboring states, California and Washington, in banning open net pens that allow waste, parasites and other harmful chemicals from

By: Abigail Penny, Animal Equality UK Executive Director

“As good as any bullet.” The words of a farm manager on a UK pig farm as he was filmed hammering pigs to death. 

The exposé by Animal Equality led major supermarkets to promptly ditch the producer, while the owner resigned from his government-appointed chairman role within a major farm assurance scheme.

Yet, unbeknown to many, bludgeoning still occurs for some animal species due to legal ambiguity. While the Animal Welfare Act broadly states that ‘unnecessary suffering’ of animals is not permitted, farmed fish are yet to receive species-specific legal protections in the form of ‘Welfare at the Time of Killing’ regulations, leaving tens of millions of fish unprotected against potentially the most gruesome of

On Monday, December 12th, Animal Equality participated in a Senate session to debate Brazil’s proposed ‘Self-Control’ bill. The organization was joined in opposition of the bill by World Animal Protection, the Institute for Consumer Protection, the National Union of Agricultural and Livestock Fiscal Auditors (ANFFA Sindical), and other animal, environmental and consumer protection organizations.

The debated bill would end the mandatory government inspections of slaughterhouses and allow the meat industry to regulate itself.

Animal Equality has shown through investigations how the absence of slaughterhouse inspectors would allow for humane slaughter and sanitary condition violations. If passed, the bill would subject more than 7 billion animals to cruel slaughter and put public health at risk for food-borne illnesses.

The Executive Director of Animal Equality in Brazil, Carla Lettieri, was present at the debate and spoke about the harm that would be cause if the bill passes.

A criminal gang has been dismantled after authorities found horse meat unfit for human consumption being sold with forged documentation. The Civil Guard in Spain and Europol in Europe helped bring down the gang, with 35 people arrested and six companies investigated for their crimes. These crimes included: animal abuse, affiliation with a criminal organization, money laundering, crimes against public health and document falsification.

The Civil Guard has confirmed in a statement that the documentation, traceability and fitness for consumption of the animals were forged. The meat obtained from the animals was being sold in Spain and exported to countries like Germany, Belgium and Italy.

In the farm used by the gang, 80 horses were found in inhumane conditions. They were subjected to

On Thursday, December 8, Animal Equality, a leading global animal protection group, held a protest on the front lawn of the US Capitol to call for an end to horse slaughter. Around a dozen activists gathered on Capitol Hill holding banners and posters to ask Congress to permanently ban the exportation and slaughter of American horses.

Why did we protest?

This protest is a part of Animal Equality’s pressure to end horse slaughter globally, including the US. The organization recently launched an international campaign against the killing of horses for meat. Over 116,000 supporters have already signed the petition.

In the United States, horse slaughter was essentially banned when the US Government took funding away from the USDA to inspect horse slaughterhouses. Only USDA-approved meat is legal to sell. Those that once profited off of selling their horses for slaughter began to auction them off to facilities in Mexico and

In the United States, federal protections for farmed animals are extremely limited. US Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) hopes to change that with a groundbreaking piece of legislation–the Industrial Agriculture Accountability Act.

Animal Equality is among a coalition of animal protection organizations supporting Senator Booker’s ambitious bill. If passed, the Act would hold high-risk meat, dairy, and egg producers accountable—instead of tax-payers—for its reckless operation in the event of large-scale disasters, among other improvements.

About the Industrial Agriculture Accountability Act

The proposed Industrial Agriculture Accountability Act addresses multiple concerns with how the meat industry operates. The Act includes a decrease in the time animals are allowed