Animal Farming in Africa EDITORIAL LAYOUT
Images and video:
Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals
Author: Jo-Anne McArthur
[Content warning: Contains upsetting images]
In late 2022, We Animals (WAM) Founder Jo-Anne McArthur visited sub-Saharan Africa in collaboration with an African not-for-profit organization to investigate the growth of industrial animal farming in the region. Here she shares her account from her time in the field.
The industrial farming of animals is on the rise on the African continent, and this is mobilizing animal and environmental advocacy organizations. The photos and videos of this worrisome trend that I created alongside my African colleagues will serve to help campaigners, educators and legislators to address the problem of a trend that could be stopped or reversed before it is entrenched, as it is in the west.
With my NGO colleagues, I also visited a busy live animal market in the heart of the city’s most dangerous township. We didn’t stay long, just long enough to capture photos of thirsty, despondent birds. A woman purchased a chicken, and I was allowed to photograph her having her legs tied together and then put in a plastic bag. They made a hole for her head to poke through. A far cry from the barns of 24,000 birds I visited earlier, yet nonetheless symbolic of the attitudes that African advocates are working hard to shift.
These photos offer a glimpse into the lives and deaths of animals on farms, and give us a sense of the work ahead.
All images and video clips by Jo-Anne McArthur.
Editor’s note: Our work in this region was only possible because of African advocates who work on behalf of animals across Africa. While these visuals depict a specific region, animal exploitation is a global issue taking place in every country.
We’d like to express our thanks to our friends at the public policy action tank Brighter Green for connecting WAM to our African partners.