Animal Equality published harrowing footage of chickens suffering on a German farm used by the country’s largest chicken producer, Wiesenhof. During undercover research at a broiler chicken farm in the German state Saxony-Anhalt from February to April 2020, numerous violations of animal welfare regulations were documented. The resulting material was leaked to Animal Equality and in turn, we filed a complaint against the farm with the relevant German authorities.

In honor of International Animal Rights Day, Animal Equality released a new investigation that reveals that wet markets in China continue to sell and slaughter dogs and cats for meat, despite media reports and statements from the country’s government proclaiming otherwise. According to research, more than 10 million dogs and 4 million cats are killed for consumption each year in the country.

Animal Equality investigated several chicken farms and meat markets from February 2019 to October 2020 in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana—states in India which are known for their chicken production. In our investigation, we found crippled birds who could not walk or reach food or water. We also found many chickens severely ill and dying of starvation, heart attacks, and respiratory infections. The carcasses of the dead birds were left to rot next to living chickens.

Nine months after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, Animal Equality releases a new investigation that shows China’s wet markets are still in operation. The footage was filmed in China in May 2020, with the help of local activists, and reveals that despite the pandemic, live animal markets continue to sell animals such as turtles, frogs, ducks, geese, pigeons, and others, bringing together species that in nature would never live together. Scientists believe COVID-19 originated in a wet market, and research shows that the terrible confinement conditions and mixed-species within these markets create the perfect breeding ground for animal-borne diseases.

Animal Equality’s investigators visited Kinswood Eggs in the UK multiple times between June and September 2020. We found hens packed into extremely overcrowded cages, in which they each had less usable space than a letter-sized piece of paper. Many of these distressed birds were suffering from severe feather loss; some were almost completely bald with red, raw skin. Others didn’t survive and their bodies were left to decay in cages alongside living hens. The investigation was released in collaboration with The Daily Mail.

An investigation by a collective of animal protection organizations depicts the brutality and mistreatment suffered by animals exported from Spain into the Middle East, where the animals’ welfare is not guaranteed. The investigation, carried out by Animals International and Animal Welfare Foundation, and in collaboration with Animal Equality and Compassion in World Farming, reveals the enormous suffering of live animals during their transport from Spain, as well as the cruelty of their slaughter.

Animal Equality UK released distressing scenes of severe animal suffering on eight British chicken farms across Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, with our undercover filming revealing hundreds of birds suffering agonizing deaths each day. The investigation was featured as an exclusive in The Independent.

Utilizing drone footage, Animal Equality released an investigation denouncing the serious environmental risks caused by pig farms in Mexico. The short documentary, called Enemy of the Planet, was produced using drones that flew over two industrial pig farms in Jalisco that house more than 89,000 pigs. The goal of the investigation is to publicize the damage caused by industrial livestock farming.

In footage captured by Animal Equality investigators in Brazil, pigs raised for human consumption are shown being treated cruelly on industrial farms in Brazil. The video, with a version narrated in Portuguese by Brazilian actress Ellen Jabour, shows pigs being beaten with electrified sticks and forced to live in their own feces and urine, exposing the unsanitary conditions of industrial pig farms.

Animal Equality, along with Ana Pardo de Vera, Chief Editor at Público, released an investigation into a factory farm in Spain documenting the cruelty of the farm’s environment and rapid growth of chickens. Our team visited the same farm during different life stages of the farm’s chickens, revealing the immense suffering these birds go through before slaughter.

Animal Equality’s investigators have documented the suffering of tens of thousands of lambs as they are shipped from Spain hundreds of miles by truck and then forced to travel by sea across long distances. The journeys can last up to ten days until their arrival at Emirates or Egypt where the animals will be killed while fully conscious.

Citing public health and safety, Animal Equality launched a worldwide campaign and petition calling on the United Nations to immediately close all wet markets that sell animals. Not only do these markets pose an immediate danger to humans, but they are also intensely cruel and abhorrently inhumane to animals, as shown by our investigation into wet markets in China, India, and Vietnam.