We Animals Legacy Society

“I’ve loved animals since I was a child. I always felt they had their own presence and understanding, even if they didn’t speak the language we understood. As a wildlife photographer, I’m able to observe animals as they gather food, tend to their young, watch for predators or approach potential prey. Animals are intelligent, keen observers of their surroundings, and wonderful parents. The animals we keep for entertainment, food and research are no different. If more people knew and saw how these animals live, they’d begin to look for alternatives to how we treat them. Animal photojournalism is at the heart of building awareness with images we can no longer turn away from. That’s why I decided to leave a gift in my will to We Animals. I believe We Animals is instrumental in bringing visibility to the hidden plight of many animals, and I want the funds and property I have left to contribute to something that will make a difference in attitudes.

I am happy to bequeath a part of my estate to We Animals’ activism. As a journalist and former undercover activist, I think I might be able to handle going into a slaughterhouse where animals are killed with captive-bolt pistols, but into a pig slaughterhouse where they’re bludgeoned to death and in front of each other? Nope. Never. I admire you all for your bravery, and for the necessary work you do to bring this kind of animal pain into the open. I believe in what you’re doing more than I do any other activist work: perhaps it’s the journalist in me, the believer that, as Gretchen Wyler used to say, “cruelty can’t stand the spotlight.” One picture can change a life in an instant. I know because it did mine so many decades ago.