Film: Molly Condit, 2025
Narration: Jo-Anne McArthur
2025 took us into the shadows, and you helped us bring the hidden animal stories we found there into the light.
This year, we documented what the world wasn’t meant to see and made invisible animals visible. Our visuals support the people working every day to create real, practical change for animals.
Meet the animals we encountered and the stories we uncovered this year in our 2025 Year-in-Review video.
Thank you to the We Animals community for your ongoing support. We can’t do this work without you.
Our 2025 Highlights
Global Stories from A Global Network
In 2025, we continued to focus on stories unfolding in Asia and Latin America, as well as North America and Europe. Our photojournalists undertook 17 assignments this year, including shoots with NGO partners to support their campaigns and independent fieldwork.
We collaborated with organizations to support their campaigns and tell important animal stories together, including animals used for research in Mexico with Te Protejo, intense confinement in India with Humane World For Animals, black soldier fly larvae in Indonesia with the International Council for Animal Welfare, and shrimp farming in Ecuador with the Animal Welfare Observatory.
In collaboration with the Open Wing Alliance, a global coalition of nearly 100 organizations established by The Humane League, and Reporters for Animals International, we released the largest investigation of its kind: The Real Cost of Eggs. This sweeping, multi-year exposé into the global egg industry captured never-before-seen footage from industrial farms across more than 35 countries and six continents.
Yatin Verma / Open Wing Alliance / We Animals
Animal photojournalist Lukas Vincour documents a traditional fish pond harvest. Undisclosed location, Central Bohemian Region, Czechia, 2024.
Lukas Vincour / We Animals
We published 16 independent editorials reporting on the work our photojournalists conducted. These individuals venture into farms, slaughterhouses, wet markets, and natural disasters to document the enduring experiences of animals. Their dedication places them at physical, financial, and psychological risk.
Top stories from 2025 include:
- The Soul of Gaza: Animals Amid War in collaboration with Diana Hulet and Mahmoud Abu Hamda / Sanctuary Doc
- Behind the Label: An Investigation into Italy’s Buffalo Mozzarella Industry by Raffaele Petralla and Arianna Fraccon
- A Rare Glimpse Inside Canada’s Prison Farms by Jo-Anne McArthur in collaboration with Evolve Our Prison Farms
We Animals visuals were featured in over 250 media outlets this year, from The Hill Times to France24, TED Talks and Vox.
40,000+ Visuals Free to the Movement
Our world-class stock platform now offers over 40,000 visuals, free to anyone advocating for animals. This resource is fundamental to our mission of supporting the movement. In 2025, our stock users downloaded over 49,500 images and videos, spanning 91 countries. Our users are located in 96 countries, and include over 600 organizations.
Explore the top 100 visuals downloaded by our users in 2025.
Number of visuals in stock collection
Number of visuals downloaded in 2025
Number of organizations that accessed our visuals in 2025
A Virtual Exhibit of Our Fellow’s Work
Our 2024 Fellow, Bogna Wiltowska, bore witness to the lives of farmed animals in Central Asia, a region where industrial agriculture is beginning to take hold. On World Farmed Animals Day, we published a compelling visual journey of her work, inviting viewers to witness the untold stories of the animals Bogna encountered while documenting in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. The virtual exhibit attracted nearly 2,500 visitors during its one-month promotion and garnered coverage in The Times of Central Asia.
HIDDEN’s Fifth Anniversary
November 2025 marked five years since the publication of our award-winning book, HIDDEN: Animals in the Anthropocene. With more than 3,700 copies sold, over 15 exhibitions featuring its work, and five awards received, HIDDEN has garnered global recognition for its poignant depiction of animal lives.
To mark the occasion, we reflected on the book’s impact and what changes have occurred for animals since its publication.
Our Founder in the Wild
Our founder and president, Jo-Anne McArthur, continues to spread We Animals’ mission with audiences around the globe through online and in-person talks, interviews and events. In 2025, Jo-Anne delivered 30 talks to audiences across North America, Europe, and Asia. Highlights included presenting at the European Parliament about the hidden costs of factory farming, participating in Animal Think Tank’s messaging event in London, UK, lecturing photography students at Falmouth University, UK, and mentoring members of FIAPO’s network alongside We Animals photojournalist Shatabdi Chakrabarti (with thanks to our wonderful funders, Voiceless). Our founder’s images were also recognized in various photography competitions, including Festival della Fotografia Etica, PhotoVogue, and Nature Photographer of the Year.
Jo-Anne speaking at the European Parliament about the hidden costs of factory farming. Brussels, April, 2025.
Photo credit: Justine Auvrignon EEB
Photo credit: Avinash Tewari / Animal Think Tank
A Theory of Change
2025 also marked the year We Animals finessed and articulated our Theory of Change, and we’re excited to share this publicly in January 2026. This will serve as the foundation for our new 2026-2028 Strategic Plan. More details to come very soon!
Members of the We Animals team at an annual work retreat. We gathered in beautiful cottage country, Canada, to map out our contributions to the animal rights movement over the next three years.
Photo credit: Hailey Oldfield
Thank you for being with us throughout 2025. We’re really excited about what’s possible and what we’ll do together in 2026!
A heartfelt thank you to our staff, volunteers, donors, photographers (and cheerleaders) for being a crucial part of We Animals.
Did you know? Our stock platform offers 40,000+ photos and videos of animal issues around the globe. Non-commercial (free) and commercial licensing available.