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We Animals
Drawing from a ten-year photography project, We Animals documents animals in the human environment, showing that humans are as much animals as the creatures used for food, clothing, research, experimentation, work, entertainment, slavery, and companionship. Through pictures shot in more than 40 countries and on all seven continents, award-winning photojournalist and animal advocate Jo-Anne McArthur breaks down the barriers that humans have built which allow non-human animals to be treated as objects. Ultimately, We Animals provides a valuable lesson about our treatment of animals, makes animal industries visible and accountable, and widens our circle of compassion to include all sentient beings. In McArthur's words: "My goals have always been to educate people about our treatment of animals. To reduce their suffering. To widen our circle of compassion to include non-human animals. To make animal industries visible, and accountable."
208 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2013
10 people are currently reading
513 people want to read
About the author
Jo-Anne McArthur
8 books52 followersBased in Toronto, Canada, Jo-Anne McArthur is a photojournalist who brings a compassionate eye and a natural ability to her work. Though Jo-Anne shoots portrait, editorial, food and event photography in Toronto and the surrounding area, she also spends 4 - 6 months of each year abroad working on her documentary project We Animals. She is curious, open, and engaged, and approaches each project and assignment with enthusiasm and care.
Jo-Anne’s We Animals project, which began over a decade ago, highlights the ways in which human and animal cultures are intertwined. The central premise is that humans are just as much animal as the sentient beings used for food, clothing, research, experimentation, entertainment, work, slavery and companionship. Her project lays bare the complicated emotions and exploitations inherent in many human-animal relationships through photographs that defy the stereotypical in-your-face animal advocacy. She has shot for We Animals in over 30 countries and maintains a rigorous schedule of research and travel to keep it going. Her first book, We Animals, is published by Lantern Books, and she is also the subject of the Canadian documentary The Ghosts in Our Machine.
To date, Jo-Anne and the We Animals project have received several grants and garnered accolades such as the Canadian Empathy Award (in the arts category) and nominated by CBC as one of Canada's Top 50 Champions of Change.
Some of Jo-Anne’s clients include ELLE Canada, Der Spiegel, National Geographic Traveler, Canadian Geographic Magazine, Canadian Living Magazine and Sotokoto Magazine, and she guest lectures regularly in North America. Over 100 not-for-profit organizations have used We Animals images to help further their cause to end animal suffering.
Jo-Anne’s We Animals project, which began over a decade ago, highlights the ways in which human and animal cultures are intertwined. The central premise is that humans are just as much animal as the sentient beings used for food, clothing, research, experimentation, entertainment, work, slavery and companionship. Her project lays bare the complicated emotions and exploitations inherent in many human-animal relationships through photographs that defy the stereotypical in-your-face animal advocacy. She has shot for We Animals in over 30 countries and maintains a rigorous schedule of research and travel to keep it going. Her first book, We Animals, is published by Lantern Books, and she is also the subject of the Canadian documentary The Ghosts in Our Machine.
To date, Jo-Anne and the We Animals project have received several grants and garnered accolades such as the Canadian Empathy Award (in the arts category) and nominated by CBC as one of Canada's Top 50 Champions of Change.
Some of Jo-Anne’s clients include ELLE Canada, Der Spiegel, National Geographic Traveler, Canadian Geographic Magazine, Canadian Living Magazine and Sotokoto Magazine, and she guest lectures regularly in North America. Over 100 not-for-profit organizations have used We Animals images to help further their cause to end animal suffering.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
December 14, 2013
I read We Animals by Jo-Anne McArthur cover to cover last night. The book is like a conscience hovering in the corner of your soul, calmly asking you to stop and think for a moment, to see something in a different way. It is a kind of sage. As I flipped through the book, absorbing the survey of macabre situations animals are in because of humans, I wondered as much about the inner lives of the human subjects as I did about the animals. For instance, page 18; how did this man in the red sweater end up here, brandishing a wooden stick, prodding a bull about? What led him to become this person? What combination of nature and nurture created a psyche that believes this behaviour is good behaviour? This is part of the genius of McArthur's photographs: the humans are not villains, but almost themselves also victims of an ethos. Their stories and mysteries are just as important as the animals' in discovering how to dismantle that ethos.
This is a favourite passage, from page 123: "One sheep's head is turned to the side. ...this sheep on the gangplank seems to ask whether we're sure that we have nothing in common with him. In our failure to deal with climate change or resist the compulsion to eat the animal products that are making us sick and warming the planet, are we humans in our own way going up our own gangplank to meet our doom? And if so, why should we think we animals are mastering our own future any better than those animals whom we consider the epitome of passive victimhood?"
Please get yourself a copy of this book and share it with those around you. The photos are, of course, brilliant, and the text helps to contextualize them and invites us into McArthur's compassionately critical (and graciously forgiving) mind. This book is an introduction to the complex web that animals are caught in all around the world. Some situations are not morally black and white, but McArthur is merely asking us to think about them, consider them, and let the animals be on our individual radars.
I hope and know that she will continue her important and urgent work; illuminating what is there, asking us to question what is normal, and ultimately asking us to look in the mirror and reflect on the stuff we are made of.
A milestone achievement. I feel lucky to be around for it.
Congratulations Jo-Anne McArthur and We Animals.
This is a favourite passage, from page 123: "One sheep's head is turned to the side. ...this sheep on the gangplank seems to ask whether we're sure that we have nothing in common with him. In our failure to deal with climate change or resist the compulsion to eat the animal products that are making us sick and warming the planet, are we humans in our own way going up our own gangplank to meet our doom? And if so, why should we think we animals are mastering our own future any better than those animals whom we consider the epitome of passive victimhood?"
Please get yourself a copy of this book and share it with those around you. The photos are, of course, brilliant, and the text helps to contextualize them and invites us into McArthur's compassionately critical (and graciously forgiving) mind. This book is an introduction to the complex web that animals are caught in all around the world. Some situations are not morally black and white, but McArthur is merely asking us to think about them, consider them, and let the animals be on our individual radars.
I hope and know that she will continue her important and urgent work; illuminating what is there, asking us to question what is normal, and ultimately asking us to look in the mirror and reflect on the stuff we are made of.
A milestone achievement. I feel lucky to be around for it.
Congratulations Jo-Anne McArthur and We Animals.
August 22, 2013
It would be disingenuous of me to write a review of this book, since I'm not only the publisher but I was intimately involved in the construction and development of the book. Instead of a review, therefore, let me just express my appreciation for the incredible work that Jo-Anne McArthur has done in bringing the practices that you see in WE ANIMALS to light, and to her honoring of the remarkable men and women who care for the animals who have been so mightily abused. I know that many people will be distressed by some of the images in WE ANIMALS. We *should* be distressed. Not to be distressed would reveal a loss of perspective and humanity that should make us worry about our souls. But there are also images of great beauty and dignity—even amid the horrors—that I think should give us hope and steel our spines to bring about change.
March 9, 2014
This is one of the most astonishing books I have ever encountered. Not many photographers focus upon the way human beings treat other animals--at least, not very many professional photographers. Animal advocacy literature often includes photography, but they either tend to be straightforward snapshots with little artistic merit, or gruesome "shock" imagery. McArthur's photos are none of the above.
This is true art that depicts the animals' perspective in the myriad ways they are caught within the cogs of human whim and industry. These images are not meant to provoke disgust, but rather thoughtfulness. And they are as much about us as they are about other creatures.
While many people don't want to ponder these issues at all--even when they are presented in a way that makes them easier to view and mull over--those who do open this book will find themselves in the company of a rich talent and possibly an entire new perspective.
This is true art that depicts the animals' perspective in the myriad ways they are caught within the cogs of human whim and industry. These images are not meant to provoke disgust, but rather thoughtfulness. And they are as much about us as they are about other creatures.
While many people don't want to ponder these issues at all--even when they are presented in a way that makes them easier to view and mull over--those who do open this book will find themselves in the company of a rich talent and possibly an entire new perspective.
September 24, 2018
I feel truly blessed to have heard Jo-Anne speak at an Animal Welfare conference this year. She is a phenomenal person, photographer and writer. This was an amazing book.
November 13, 2021
Questo libro fotografico è un cazzotto nello stomaco. Ci mostra quello che di solito è nascosto nelle industrie che sfruttano gli animali non umani. Ci mostra il loro punto di vista; ci mostra i loro occhi, la loro paura. Ci fa vedere quanto siamo simili. Quanto è profondamente ingiusto e violento il modo in cui ci appropriamo delle loro vite. Un libro che tutti dovrebbero sfogliare.
February 16, 2014
This book is amazing. The people whose work is documented in this book are amazing and Jo-Anne is my shero. I am very thankful and humbled to know that they are out there doing their work to make the world a better place.
We Animals is not an easy read - it is full of grueling, heart-wrenching stories; sometimes I had to stop reading and sometimes I couldn't stop crying. But there are also wonderful heart-warming stories. This book made me stop and think, it made me reposition my point of view, it made me cry of heartbreak and it made me ask what is wrong with us human animals.
I loved the fact that Jo-Anne started the book with a beetle and I am thankful she did. I am also thankful that one of the most memorable stories in this book is Jo-Anne's encounter with a lonely depressed fish in a Cuban home. I am thankful that Jo-Anne's love and compassion for all living creatures let her take notice of the suffering of those little ones so easily disregarded and overpowered by the suffering of the bigger and cuter animals.
Most of all, this book made me want to visit all the animal sanctuaries, volunteer with more organizations that are actively helping non-human animals and spread the word. For all these reasons and more I sincerely hope We Animals will reach as many people as possible and inspire others. If not to act then at least to stop and think. Because as Jo-Anne says: We owe them the respect of meeting their eyes and not turning away. Which is why this book will be gracing my table for all guests to see until they dare to look at more than one page at a time.
We Animals is not an easy read - it is full of grueling, heart-wrenching stories; sometimes I had to stop reading and sometimes I couldn't stop crying. But there are also wonderful heart-warming stories. This book made me stop and think, it made me reposition my point of view, it made me cry of heartbreak and it made me ask what is wrong with us human animals.
I loved the fact that Jo-Anne started the book with a beetle and I am thankful she did. I am also thankful that one of the most memorable stories in this book is Jo-Anne's encounter with a lonely depressed fish in a Cuban home. I am thankful that Jo-Anne's love and compassion for all living creatures let her take notice of the suffering of those little ones so easily disregarded and overpowered by the suffering of the bigger and cuter animals.
Most of all, this book made me want to visit all the animal sanctuaries, volunteer with more organizations that are actively helping non-human animals and spread the word. For all these reasons and more I sincerely hope We Animals will reach as many people as possible and inspire others. If not to act then at least to stop and think. Because as Jo-Anne says: We owe them the respect of meeting their eyes and not turning away. Which is why this book will be gracing my table for all guests to see until they dare to look at more than one page at a time.
January 2, 2014
Such a beautiful book. Gorgeous pictures and the written stories that go with them bring them to life even more. I cried just reading the dedication. Moving and powerful, it is now one of my favourite books and I'll display it with pride on my bookshelf.
January 9, 2017
Saddest book. A must read for every single person on earth.
February 11, 2014
"It will change the world, for the better, for us all."
(Full disclosure: I received a free pdf copy of this book for review.)
"What you see on these pages may surprise or disturb you. My aim is not to turn you away but to draw you in, bring you closer, make you a participant. I want my photographs to be beautiful and evocative as well as truthful and compelling. I hope you’ll take the time not just to look but to see — if only as a mark of respect for the billions of animals whose lives and deaths we don’t notice. To look at this book is to bear witness with me, which means also that we confront cruelty and our complicity in it. As a species, we have to learn new behaviours and attitudes and unlearn the old ones." (page 9)
Photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur has spent the last decade and a half traveling the world - both on her own and in the company of animal activists - documenting our complicated relationships with nonhuman animals. Relationships that so often boil down to objectification, exploitation, and consumption. If you've been involved with animal advocacy for any length of time, no doubt you're familiar with some of McArthur's images. She's photographed open rescues conducted by Animal Equality; documented the affecting actions of Toronto Pig Save; and set sail with the crew of the Sea Shepherd. McArthur bears witness through the lens of her camera, exposing atrocities that many of us would prefer remain invisible.
Recently featured in Liz Marshall's The Ghosts In Our Machine , We Animals features 100 of McArthur's photos - some taken for the film, others on behalf of various animal advocacy organizations, and the rest during the artist's travels. The result is a stunning portfolio that's as beautiful as it is heartbreaking. From the Calgary Stampede to the Tam Dao Bear Sanctuary in Vietnam, McArthur brings us examples of unimaginable cruelty - and selfless compassion.
She documents the exploitation of nonhuman animals for fashion and entertainment (mink farms in Sweden; greyhound racing in Australia; aquariums in Europe and New York), food (a photo depicting a dumpster full of dead piglets at a factory farm in Spain, followed by a photo dominated by hunks of charred meat at a five-star Kenyan restaurant), and research (the pictures of the now-abandoned Coulston Foundation are among the book's most haunting) - and then counters these inhumanities with images of mercy. Activists at work, picketing and protesting and providing much-needed care. Nonhuman animals - turkeys and goats and gorillas; refugees, living out their lives in peace on sanctuaries or with their human guardians. Not the way nature intended, but far, far better than the alternative.
Some of the images in this collection will stay with me forever: That of the white minnow, body suspended motionless in a barren tank in Havana, Cuba. ("I told the woman that I thought he was dying. 'No, she replied. 'It’s been like that for two years.'") The dying bull, tortured and slain for the amusement of a Spanish crowd, portrait placed to the right of a photo of a young boy attending bullfighting school. ("I asked him why he wanted to become a matador. 'Because I love bulls,' he replied.") The lone Humboldt penguin, imprisoned in a dilapidated "zoo" located on the seventh floor of Pata Mall in Bangkok, staring forlornly at the filthy, child-sized pool that represents his "habitat." The chimpanzee restraining jackets, also child-sized and stained with blood and other bodily fluids, found in the rubble of the Coulston Foundation in Alamogordo, New Mexico.
Each photo is accompanied by a caption; a few of them are almost painfully brief, but many are more like mini-essays, detailing the indignities both obvious and hidden within the images. The result is a sort of animal rights primer, making We Animals an excellent "sneak attack" gift for non-vegans. While McArthur is herself a vegan and animal activist, We Animals is anything but "preachy": McArthur both informs and questions the reader, challenging us to reexamine our attitudes and suppositions concerning nonhuman animals. Her photos are filled with unspeakable atrocities, and some are terribly difficult to look at. Yet look we must: "Ron’s inherent dignity, his individuality and the gravity of his gaze are shared by many, if not all, of the animals in this book. [...] At the very least, we owe Ron and all the others the respect of meeting their eyes and not turning away."
But We Animals is so much more than a collection of gruesome images of animal suffering. McArthur's work is tempered by strength, humility, and beauty. She manages to capture the dignity in these animals - so much more than just cogs in a machine - even as they are incorporated into a very undignified system. While the first three sections of the book are very dire indeed, these images are counterbalanced by the more positive and hopeful pictures included in Part 4, "Mercy." We Animals documents what is - and explores what might be.
I also appreciate McArthur's international emphasis and her focus on language. She uses gendered pronouns to describe her subjects - even when their gender is unknown - thus stressing the point that animals are someones rather than somethings. She's also quick to point out that, just as animal abuse doesn't just happen "over there," in foreign countries, the United States and North America do not hold a monopoly on compassion and animal advocacy. On a photograph of a Vietnamese "food puppy," she observes: "We in the West are conveniently outraged by the selling of dogs or cats for food, forgetting that the choice we make between petting and lavishing affection on one group of creatures, and killing and eating another, is just as arbitrary and cruel."
For art lovers, McArthur offers copious notes on technique: camera angles, perspective, framing, and the like. Through her commentary, I emerged with a greater appreciate and understanding of the hows and whys behind the photos in We Animals.
An unexpected surprise, Part 5, "Notes from the Field," is a sort of journal/travelogue/would-be (please be!?) 'zine recorded while documenting conditions in fur farms, presumably somewhere in Europe. Notes of how best to photograph injuries on differently colored mink coexist with anecdotes about dumpster diving. Of her guests, Arthur writes: "Amazing, gorgeous strong women, tattooed and not. Vegan. Friendly. There is so, so much peace in this house, It makes me teary." Should that all animals - human and non - find such refuge.
Give it to: your very best vegan friend. Family members who claim to love animals - but still eat them. Students of photography and art aficionados. Basically, everyone you know. I adore this book!
http://www.easyvegan.info/2014/02/17/...
(Full disclosure: I received a free pdf copy of this book for review.)
"What you see on these pages may surprise or disturb you. My aim is not to turn you away but to draw you in, bring you closer, make you a participant. I want my photographs to be beautiful and evocative as well as truthful and compelling. I hope you’ll take the time not just to look but to see — if only as a mark of respect for the billions of animals whose lives and deaths we don’t notice. To look at this book is to bear witness with me, which means also that we confront cruelty and our complicity in it. As a species, we have to learn new behaviours and attitudes and unlearn the old ones." (page 9)
Photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur has spent the last decade and a half traveling the world - both on her own and in the company of animal activists - documenting our complicated relationships with nonhuman animals. Relationships that so often boil down to objectification, exploitation, and consumption. If you've been involved with animal advocacy for any length of time, no doubt you're familiar with some of McArthur's images. She's photographed open rescues conducted by Animal Equality; documented the affecting actions of Toronto Pig Save; and set sail with the crew of the Sea Shepherd. McArthur bears witness through the lens of her camera, exposing atrocities that many of us would prefer remain invisible.
Recently featured in Liz Marshall's The Ghosts In Our Machine , We Animals features 100 of McArthur's photos - some taken for the film, others on behalf of various animal advocacy organizations, and the rest during the artist's travels. The result is a stunning portfolio that's as beautiful as it is heartbreaking. From the Calgary Stampede to the Tam Dao Bear Sanctuary in Vietnam, McArthur brings us examples of unimaginable cruelty - and selfless compassion.
She documents the exploitation of nonhuman animals for fashion and entertainment (mink farms in Sweden; greyhound racing in Australia; aquariums in Europe and New York), food (a photo depicting a dumpster full of dead piglets at a factory farm in Spain, followed by a photo dominated by hunks of charred meat at a five-star Kenyan restaurant), and research (the pictures of the now-abandoned Coulston Foundation are among the book's most haunting) - and then counters these inhumanities with images of mercy. Activists at work, picketing and protesting and providing much-needed care. Nonhuman animals - turkeys and goats and gorillas; refugees, living out their lives in peace on sanctuaries or with their human guardians. Not the way nature intended, but far, far better than the alternative.
Some of the images in this collection will stay with me forever: That of the white minnow, body suspended motionless in a barren tank in Havana, Cuba. ("I told the woman that I thought he was dying. 'No, she replied. 'It’s been like that for two years.'") The dying bull, tortured and slain for the amusement of a Spanish crowd, portrait placed to the right of a photo of a young boy attending bullfighting school. ("I asked him why he wanted to become a matador. 'Because I love bulls,' he replied.") The lone Humboldt penguin, imprisoned in a dilapidated "zoo" located on the seventh floor of Pata Mall in Bangkok, staring forlornly at the filthy, child-sized pool that represents his "habitat." The chimpanzee restraining jackets, also child-sized and stained with blood and other bodily fluids, found in the rubble of the Coulston Foundation in Alamogordo, New Mexico.
Each photo is accompanied by a caption; a few of them are almost painfully brief, but many are more like mini-essays, detailing the indignities both obvious and hidden within the images. The result is a sort of animal rights primer, making We Animals an excellent "sneak attack" gift for non-vegans. While McArthur is herself a vegan and animal activist, We Animals is anything but "preachy": McArthur both informs and questions the reader, challenging us to reexamine our attitudes and suppositions concerning nonhuman animals. Her photos are filled with unspeakable atrocities, and some are terribly difficult to look at. Yet look we must: "Ron’s inherent dignity, his individuality and the gravity of his gaze are shared by many, if not all, of the animals in this book. [...] At the very least, we owe Ron and all the others the respect of meeting their eyes and not turning away."
But We Animals is so much more than a collection of gruesome images of animal suffering. McArthur's work is tempered by strength, humility, and beauty. She manages to capture the dignity in these animals - so much more than just cogs in a machine - even as they are incorporated into a very undignified system. While the first three sections of the book are very dire indeed, these images are counterbalanced by the more positive and hopeful pictures included in Part 4, "Mercy." We Animals documents what is - and explores what might be.
I also appreciate McArthur's international emphasis and her focus on language. She uses gendered pronouns to describe her subjects - even when their gender is unknown - thus stressing the point that animals are someones rather than somethings. She's also quick to point out that, just as animal abuse doesn't just happen "over there," in foreign countries, the United States and North America do not hold a monopoly on compassion and animal advocacy. On a photograph of a Vietnamese "food puppy," she observes: "We in the West are conveniently outraged by the selling of dogs or cats for food, forgetting that the choice we make between petting and lavishing affection on one group of creatures, and killing and eating another, is just as arbitrary and cruel."
For art lovers, McArthur offers copious notes on technique: camera angles, perspective, framing, and the like. Through her commentary, I emerged with a greater appreciate and understanding of the hows and whys behind the photos in We Animals.
An unexpected surprise, Part 5, "Notes from the Field," is a sort of journal/travelogue/would-be (please be!?) 'zine recorded while documenting conditions in fur farms, presumably somewhere in Europe. Notes of how best to photograph injuries on differently colored mink coexist with anecdotes about dumpster diving. Of her guests, Arthur writes: "Amazing, gorgeous strong women, tattooed and not. Vegan. Friendly. There is so, so much peace in this house, It makes me teary." Should that all animals - human and non - find such refuge.
Give it to: your very best vegan friend. Family members who claim to love animals - but still eat them. Students of photography and art aficionados. Basically, everyone you know. I adore this book!
http://www.easyvegan.info/2014/02/17/...
January 21, 2020
Absolutely heart-wrenching. Very succesfully highlights the absurdity that humans and other animals could somehow be divided into us and them. There is no way. This is brutal, yes, but there is hope in the way Jo-Anne talks about animal activism etc. Please read this one, every single one of you.
December 10, 2018
This book took me a very long time to read because I was so physically sensitive to the material — which is more moving because of the powerful accompanying images of the animals. A wonderful, highly informative, yet emotionally challenging read.
June 6, 2025
This is not Justin Torres’ novel We the Animals. This is a book that makes the viewer feel complicit in exploiting animals for different reason and yet also as MacArthur notes in her intro essay: “to affirm the obvious yet frequently forgotten fact that we are animals” (10).
This is a hard unrelenting view of the abuse and torture we mete out to animals especially if you have any investment in animal welfare, you will experience trauma. These images are triggering. Even if you don’t some of these images are bound to make you feel that what humans do to animals for mostly pleasure and utility is unconscionable and undeserved. What did young minks do to be trapped in a small cage living their short lives on top of each so that some become brutalized and eaten alive?
Fortunately MacArthur also documents her own journey into animal activism which involves illegally photographing captive animals and also zoo animals, animals in labs and farmed animals profiling those who spend their lives rescuing and caring for abused animals. We gain a glimmer of hope at the end where some animals can live out there lives without fear of abuse or slaughter.
No culture escapes her lens but within each of these varied destinations pockets of resistance are occurring.
This is a hard unrelenting view of the abuse and torture we mete out to animals especially if you have any investment in animal welfare, you will experience trauma. These images are triggering. Even if you don’t some of these images are bound to make you feel that what humans do to animals for mostly pleasure and utility is unconscionable and undeserved. What did young minks do to be trapped in a small cage living their short lives on top of each so that some become brutalized and eaten alive?
Fortunately MacArthur also documents her own journey into animal activism which involves illegally photographing captive animals and also zoo animals, animals in labs and farmed animals profiling those who spend their lives rescuing and caring for abused animals. We gain a glimmer of hope at the end where some animals can live out there lives without fear of abuse or slaughter.
No culture escapes her lens but within each of these varied destinations pockets of resistance are occurring.
September 19, 2015
A harrowing and beautiful read. This book touched some of the darkest parts of my soul, but at the same time, it gave me hope. It relieved me to know that there ARE others out there fighting for the same things as I am.
I shed many, many tears over this book, and yet, I couldn't turn away. Jo-Anne McArthur achieved exactly what she wanted with me. I felt every emotion. I smelt the smells, heard the sounds and suffered vicariously through Jo and her encounters.
The best book I've read this year. If you don't read this, you'll miss out on something very eye opening and spectacular.
I shed many, many tears over this book, and yet, I couldn't turn away. Jo-Anne McArthur achieved exactly what she wanted with me. I felt every emotion. I smelt the smells, heard the sounds and suffered vicariously through Jo and her encounters.
The best book I've read this year. If you don't read this, you'll miss out on something very eye opening and spectacular.
March 15, 2014
5 stars are not enough for this
January 23, 2021
I have seen earthlings and dominion but this book feels very personal. I teared up every few pages. How can we treat, the creatures at our mercy, so badly?
Read
August 4, 2019Through poignant photos,
We Animals
author Jo-Anne McArthur describes the roles that animals have in various industries as well as the way they're treated by humans. This is not the typical coffee table book and will be unsettling to some people as it casts light on the uncomfortable reality of many modern practices of animal captivity. Because We Animals approaches the topic of animal welfare and exploitation with no small amount of bias, just as any intentional undertaking does, it's understandable that some people will be offended by the content of this photojournal.
However the images are no less true, or their reality any less representative of what goes on outside of these pages. Animals, even wild animals, are a central part of our food culture as well as our food, wildlife tourism, scientific research, and fashion industry. They generate revenue for these markets, but are also exploited around the world for as social or religious status symbols. The animals used for these industries vary from culture to culture and it make be shocking to some people to see that dogs and primates are sold as food in some countries or that livestock born too sick to be profitable are simply piled in a dumpster.
We Animals is meant to open the reader's eyes to these facts and make the reader think about the way animals are part of our culturally important entertainment and fashion industries and the way society sometimes takes for granted the way these animals are kept captive and then killed for our use. The last section of photos, called "Mercy," speaks to the actions taken by humans towards animals rescued from abandonment, abuse, or captivity. It demonstrates through powerful images how animals can be treated with kindness and empathy by human hands. It also helps us remember the lives of animals used for human gain or profit. The photojournal concludes with a section called "Notes from the Field" that gives insight into the making of the photojournal and some of the thoughts and notes of the journalist as she wrote them while in the field.
Some of the images from this intense photojournal are also available on the organization's website WeAnimalsMedia.org and it would be a good idea to take a look at them before showing this photojournal to people who may be upset by difficult or disturbing images. For children, we recommend Wild Animals in Captivity by Rob Laidlaw, which is a much more discreet and thought provoking book for younger readers. Still, we strongly recommend that when appropriate people be exposed to the reality of how animals are used and treated in circuses, factory farms which produce a substantial portion of our meats and cheeses, unethical wildlife tourist traps, and farms producing leather and fur clothing. Better yet, visit these some of these places for yourselves.
However the images are no less true, or their reality any less representative of what goes on outside of these pages. Animals, even wild animals, are a central part of our food culture as well as our food, wildlife tourism, scientific research, and fashion industry. They generate revenue for these markets, but are also exploited around the world for as social or religious status symbols. The animals used for these industries vary from culture to culture and it make be shocking to some people to see that dogs and primates are sold as food in some countries or that livestock born too sick to be profitable are simply piled in a dumpster.
We Animals is meant to open the reader's eyes to these facts and make the reader think about the way animals are part of our culturally important entertainment and fashion industries and the way society sometimes takes for granted the way these animals are kept captive and then killed for our use. The last section of photos, called "Mercy," speaks to the actions taken by humans towards animals rescued from abandonment, abuse, or captivity. It demonstrates through powerful images how animals can be treated with kindness and empathy by human hands. It also helps us remember the lives of animals used for human gain or profit. The photojournal concludes with a section called "Notes from the Field" that gives insight into the making of the photojournal and some of the thoughts and notes of the journalist as she wrote them while in the field.
Some of the images from this intense photojournal are also available on the organization's website WeAnimalsMedia.org and it would be a good idea to take a look at them before showing this photojournal to people who may be upset by difficult or disturbing images. For children, we recommend Wild Animals in Captivity by Rob Laidlaw, which is a much more discreet and thought provoking book for younger readers. Still, we strongly recommend that when appropriate people be exposed to the reality of how animals are used and treated in circuses, factory farms which produce a substantial portion of our meats and cheeses, unethical wildlife tourist traps, and farms producing leather and fur clothing. Better yet, visit these some of these places for yourselves.
September 25, 2017
Awesome. The photos and accompanying text are arresting—not the typical framing of an image. It’s thought provoking. (Maybe more than thought. Action provoking?) So sad. The non-human animals all have so much more dignity than the humans in these pictures. Their individuality, their subjective experience, is captured in the photos. They’re not “examples” or objects; they are individual lives (and deaths). It’s amazing to me that some people are willing to document all this animal abuse and suffering, and to keep trying to stop it and build a more compassionate world. It’s amazing that they don’t give up. This photographer/author is awesome.
July 31, 2023
In "We Animals," Jo-Anne McArthur makes the case that rather than treat our nonhuman fellow earthlings with respect and compassion, humans use our position of strength and dominion to dominate and subjugate those who are helpless to protest our cruelty. With dispassionate photos and text, McArthur lets the reader draw their own conclusions. No strong arguments are necessary; the facts speak for themselves. The breadth of humanity's inhumane treatment of other species is both breathtaking and heartbreaking. It's difficult to imagine a reader finishing the book unmoved.
April 11, 2022
What can I say? The photographs speak for my reading experience, for the author -- although accompanied by her thoughtful captions -- for the animals. Don't look away! See the despair, then see the mercy; hell and sanctuary are depicted in this visual, visceral book.
December 21, 2017
A daring portrait of things most humans hide from view.
December 14, 2020
Powerful
August 1, 2017
No one can read this book, look at these photographs, and just go on doing what most of us do.
October 18, 2017
Photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur’s beautifully designed coffee table book, weanimals.org, published by Lantern Books, features photos of individual animals used for entertainment, fashion, food, and research. It serves to highlight the barriers humans erect between themselves and other animals to assert dominance. The evident result — despair.
The animals in these more than 100 photographs, representing a wide variety of species and geographic diversity, are imprisoned — from the very first photo of a beetle at an Insectarium in Canada to the monkeys farmed in Laos for research labs. Their human counterparts share their fate as well confined behind wood fences, steel bars, and glass walls.
McArthur captures humanity’s natural inclination to connect in her photographs too. We see the girl reaching to touch the muzzled racing greyhound and an arm stretching towards bears at a zoo. Everyone in We Animals looks out at freedom, and separated from the ecosystem, suffers.
As McArthur says of a photo of walruses at an aquarium, “As I capture the image, I’m illustrating how we humans have distorted and inverted our vision of animals. We turn our backs on where animals should be, in their natural environment and where they are most themselves, to stare at two walruses circling their enclosure.”
She questions whether these interactions serve any purpose.
McArthur makes us see and feel the disconnection and distance created by our treatment of animals as objects of commerce.
“With the investigations I’ve been part of, it’s been disturbing to me how close these fur farms are to the natural habitat of the animals inside them. In addition to the putrefaction of their own waste they stand over the mink, raccoons and foxes can smell and see the forest, just beyond their reach. That proximity feels particularly perverse and cruel.”
In the introduction to the book, McArthur describes her process of honing her photography skills. It’s inspiring to read how she developed her art, how her mentor asked her, “What’s your point?” and she went on to find it making a niche out of photographing imprisoned animals and their advocates. It’s also intriguing to travel with McArthur around the world and glimpse her vast experiences. It’s purposeful and enviable work, but also clearly work. She describes how she obtained each picture, bore witness to suffering, smelled blood and feces, and shot photos in darkness and secrecy.
We need to see these photos. They illustrate how the imprisonment of animals works against us and confines us all. While the animals bear the brunt of the suffering, everyone pays a price. We animals, all, are forced into smaller spaces, constrained roles, and stunted lives. What we do, we do to ourselves.
Pairs well with:
Liz Marshall’s documentary The Ghosts in Our Machine (2013), which follows McArthur’s work over the course of a year.
Veganomics (2013) by Nick Cooney of The Humane League, which provides researched-based tips on animal advocacy and urges vegetarians to speak up in effective ways for the animals, who cannot speak for themselves.
The animals in these more than 100 photographs, representing a wide variety of species and geographic diversity, are imprisoned — from the very first photo of a beetle at an Insectarium in Canada to the monkeys farmed in Laos for research labs. Their human counterparts share their fate as well confined behind wood fences, steel bars, and glass walls.
McArthur captures humanity’s natural inclination to connect in her photographs too. We see the girl reaching to touch the muzzled racing greyhound and an arm stretching towards bears at a zoo. Everyone in We Animals looks out at freedom, and separated from the ecosystem, suffers.
As McArthur says of a photo of walruses at an aquarium, “As I capture the image, I’m illustrating how we humans have distorted and inverted our vision of animals. We turn our backs on where animals should be, in their natural environment and where they are most themselves, to stare at two walruses circling their enclosure.”
She questions whether these interactions serve any purpose.
McArthur makes us see and feel the disconnection and distance created by our treatment of animals as objects of commerce.
“With the investigations I’ve been part of, it’s been disturbing to me how close these fur farms are to the natural habitat of the animals inside them. In addition to the putrefaction of their own waste they stand over the mink, raccoons and foxes can smell and see the forest, just beyond their reach. That proximity feels particularly perverse and cruel.”
In the introduction to the book, McArthur describes her process of honing her photography skills. It’s inspiring to read how she developed her art, how her mentor asked her, “What’s your point?” and she went on to find it making a niche out of photographing imprisoned animals and their advocates. It’s also intriguing to travel with McArthur around the world and glimpse her vast experiences. It’s purposeful and enviable work, but also clearly work. She describes how she obtained each picture, bore witness to suffering, smelled blood and feces, and shot photos in darkness and secrecy.
We need to see these photos. They illustrate how the imprisonment of animals works against us and confines us all. While the animals bear the brunt of the suffering, everyone pays a price. We animals, all, are forced into smaller spaces, constrained roles, and stunted lives. What we do, we do to ourselves.
Pairs well with:
Liz Marshall’s documentary The Ghosts in Our Machine (2013), which follows McArthur’s work over the course of a year.
Veganomics (2013) by Nick Cooney of The Humane League, which provides researched-based tips on animal advocacy and urges vegetarians to speak up in effective ways for the animals, who cannot speak for themselves.
July 6, 2015
What humans do to other animals is a mirror of what we do to ourselves, and it's utter torture. This book is tough to read if you feel any empathy towards living creatures. It is obvious many animals suffer in order to feed, educate, and overall for the benefit of human life, but at what cost?
This book shows the extent of dominance and the barbaric attitude towards other sentient beings with whom we share our Earth. I am not against eating meat or animal research, but I am against the horrible inhumane ways we treat them before slaughter or during the research. This book made me so angry and disgusted. It's easier not to think what happens to the animals we eat or how the products which derive from animals come to be, but everyone should think and know the horrible processes which occur. Education is one way we can prevent the grotesque treatment of other animals. Seriously, from factory farms which stuff birds in crammed cages where they have to stay with their decomposing cage mates, to gestational crates for pigs where they go insane from standing in the same position for almost their whole lives while routinely pregnant, to caged baby minks being covered in feces while surrounding their dead mother... How can we as a species let this continue?
This book also shares uplifting stories about rescue initiatives, sanctuaries, and organizations helping animals and giving them a chance at a real life. It's an emotional book, and definitely showing light on an issue that should not be ignored.
This book shows the extent of dominance and the barbaric attitude towards other sentient beings with whom we share our Earth. I am not against eating meat or animal research, but I am against the horrible inhumane ways we treat them before slaughter or during the research. This book made me so angry and disgusted. It's easier not to think what happens to the animals we eat or how the products which derive from animals come to be, but everyone should think and know the horrible processes which occur. Education is one way we can prevent the grotesque treatment of other animals. Seriously, from factory farms which stuff birds in crammed cages where they have to stay with their decomposing cage mates, to gestational crates for pigs where they go insane from standing in the same position for almost their whole lives while routinely pregnant, to caged baby minks being covered in feces while surrounding their dead mother... How can we as a species let this continue?
This book also shares uplifting stories about rescue initiatives, sanctuaries, and organizations helping animals and giving them a chance at a real life. It's an emotional book, and definitely showing light on an issue that should not be ignored.
January 17, 2015
Simply amazing. I came to this book after watching the excellent and aptly titled documentary "The Ghosts in Our Machine." Jo-Anne McArthur has a gift. She is able to photograph and present us with images of animals that, while showing their condition or situation, always allows them to have respect and their own sense of being. This book and this film are not merely reels of animal cruelty footage. Rather than risk driving people away from the issue due to the graphic content inherent within the context of animal cruelty and animal rights, the subjects and issues are presented in a sensitive, thoughtful, and deliberate manner. Both this book and this film are items that I wouldn't be afraid to show people. The cost of the work that she does is also evident - the emotional, mental and physical toll of going to places the public rarely sees (the fur farms, the inside of laboratories, etc...) As someone who has an extreme sensitivity to witnessing the suffering of any animal, I honor her for putting herself in harrowing and sometimes dangerous situations in the name of education, compassion, and ultimately the benefit of all of us.
January 8, 2014
We Animals is an important table top book that should be looked at over and over again. It shares both the “harrowing and the uplifting stories about our complex relationship with animals around the globe.” Award-winning photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur has been documenting the plight of animals on all seven continents for more than 10 years. Jane Goodall writes: “These images take us to dark and hidden places visited by only a few determined and courageous individuals…they reveal the secret practices that many people will not want to know about. For the animals’ sake, I beg that you will not only look but FEEL. For if we truly understand their suffering then, surely, we shall no longer condone it.” James Cromwell writes: “We’re not just looking at pictures of exploited animals – we’re looking at their very souls. Her extraordinary images allow us to see them as living, breathing, thinking, feeling, individuals with complex emotional lives – just like us.” I was touched. I was saddened. And I was empowered to fight even harder for them.
January 2, 2014
Ever wondered about the life of an animal rights photojournalist? As well as shed light on Jo-Anne's life through her photos, the accompanying text (which is profound, personal and so revealing) just brings it all to life. I loved it, for it's beauty, it's sorrow and it's relevations. I so want it to be read by many many people - anyone who eats animals, wears them; or saves them. This book is for everyone. The introductory text says it so well: "an addition to the library of works that educate people about the extent and intensity of the ongoing war human beings are waging against our animal kin. It endeavours to break down the mental and physical barriers we've built that allow us to treat our fellow creatures as objects and not sentient beings". Yes, the book is an emotional rollercoaster, but isn't that what we need and crave? As Jo-Anne says "Hold fast. Change is happening". This book can be YOUR catalyst!
June 9, 2015
LOVED. And the quote at the end, "We humans, even in very dire straits, have some choice. Even if it's just a small choice of food, or which direction to walk, or with whom we will spend our time. With whom we will share a sleeping space. Never mind our out-of-control western freedom where we can deliberate for weeks which Ikea futon to buy or whether to watch The Biggest Loser or The Simple Life. Even the poorest of humans have some choice. With the rabbits, and I daresay all factory farmed animals, their lives are predetermined. From artificial insemination to being taken away from their mothers, to 70 days in a cramped cage, to the food pellets given, to the transport, to the stunning and slaughter and dismemberment, it's a done deal" pretty much sums up the whole book perfectly.
January 2, 2014
I received my book today and cried. It is a beautiful tribute to all the animals who do not have a voice. I believe this book will bring change and hopefully open other's hearts to a greater understanding of the plight of animals. I am proud and honored to have bought this book. It is inspiring and gives such a compassionate, view. It will be a powerful tool to share and pass the message of treating our animal friends with so much more respect and dignity of which they so deserve.
Deb Kirk
Deb Kirk
June 5, 2014
They don't have an option for "stopped reading because I was traumatized" but that's really what I should choose. Granted I thought this was a nice photo book about animals and primates but it is basically a really heartbreaking journey throughout the world, documenting the various ways we use and treat animals. Can something be great and totally awful at the same time? Yes. This is that thing.
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