Animal Fairs are places where people proudly display their beautiful prize-winning bulls, horses, ducks and all manner of farm animals. They are celebrated for having the nicest coats or gait, prized for virility and awarded for submissive temperament. At these fairs, you can also find piglets, goats and calves for sale to anyone who wishes to buy them. Entertainment is further provided with pony rides and bull riding.
Prize-winning animals, often the pets of young and proud children, are in time no different from other animals and will be sold for slaughter.
The following photographs were taken across Canada at various agricultural fairs.

In Asia, tens of thousands of bears are kept in tiny cages their entire lives so that their gall bladders can be tapped for bile, then used in Chinese medicine, acting as a "cure all" for everything from cancer to erectile dysfuntion. Most of these bears live out their lives, 5 to 20 years, at bear bile farms, unable even to turn around in their confined spaces. Many of these beautiful Asiatic black bears also have their paws completely severed for "bear paw soup" or simply chopped off to stop them clawing the farmers. When the bear begins to produce "lower quality bile", the bear is usually sold for meat.
In the past few decades, NGOs have been taking up the cause of these bears, providing education to the public as well as sanctuary for these abused animals. Spearheading the movement to end bear bile farming are the Animals Asia Foundation, as well as Free the Bears. They work tirelessly to educate people about the abuse inflicted on the bears and about cruelty-free alternatives to this so- called "medicine".
The following photos were taken at bear bile farms and at bear sanctuaries in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
For more information about bear bile farming and how to help end it, please visit the following sites:
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Though humans use most animals for food, clothing, work and entertainment, there are a select few, the chosen ones, enlisted and bred to be our companions. Many of us have been fortunate enough to share our lives with these intelligent and emotive creatures; they become part of our families. They are cherished in life and mourned in death, much like our human loved ones.
It is these relationships that teach us that animals are indeed sentient beings, that they can play and love as we can.
My hope is that we humans will eventually expand our circles of compassion to include all animals, all sentient beings, not just those we invite into our homes.
CHECK BACK SOON FOR MORE PHOTOS!

In 2005 and 2006 I spent some time shadowing the Cruelty Investigators at the Toronto Humane Society (THS)and the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA). Their work regularly deals with cases of unimaginable cruelty and neglect. Brutal wildlife trappings and killings, pets left to starve in cages when they are no longer wanted, sadists who burn and even boil their cats and dogs alive. Documenting their work revealed a dark underbelly to the city, one which is barely seen by the public and rarely covered in the news.
Witnessing the stamina that these investigators draw upon to endure such daily work was really incredible. While people regularly turn their heads in the face of cruelty - it is just too hard to see, to bear - these investigators have dedicated their careers to witnessing acts of cruelty, and to fixing them.
Many thanks to the THS and OSPCA for sharing your time and allowing me to document your work. Many more thank yous for doing the work itself. You are courageous people.

Under most international laws, animals are regarded as human property and not seen as their own entities, worthy of rights and protection. Such property is purchased and used for whatever means to an end that it is designated to provide: cows for milking, veal for its tender meat, sheep for wool, "pets" for companionship and entertainment, fish to look nice in aquariums, "starter pets" such as rabbits and hamsters for kids to play with, look after and eventually neglect.
These photographs represent our discarded property: animals with no rights of their own, little protection from the law, and who have outlived their usefulness to humans.

These images were shot throughout factory farms, free range farms and processing plants in Europe, North America and Africa.

The numbers are staggering; impossible to understand or feel. An estimated ten billion food animals such as cows, goats, chickens and pigs are killed every year in North America alone. This number doesn't even include fish and other marine life. Animals once raised on family farms are now mass produced in factory farms where they live out short lives in confinement, deprived of sunlight, proper food and even the ability to turn around.
I could elaborate on the facts but my job is to document and let the photographs speak for themselves. These are the faces of the meat industry.

Elephants are broken and forced to dance at circuses. Tigers are taught to jump through burning hoops for cheering audiences. Bears are taught to dance in India. Yaks are forced to endure tourists on their backs all day in the Himalayas. Foreign animals live banal existences behind bars for our viewing pleasure. Deer are killed and stuffed so that we may hang their heads on our walls. Fish are kept alone in bowls their entire lives so that we can glance at them as we walk through our living rooms. Every human act in support of animal slavery and confinement perpetuates the belief that they exist for our amusement.

This section of "We Animals" pertains more so to the issue of "good intentions gone wrong" than to the successful rescue efforts of many sanctuaries. My best examples are the Home for Crippled Dogs in Bangkok and the SPCA in Calcutta. Run by strict Buddhists and Hindus, they believe that euthanasia is not God's way. I was told that Westerners like myself do not truly love or care for animals because we euthanize them. At the SPCA, I pointed out a dog that was crippled and rotting alive with a flesh-eating disease. This dog belonged to no one and would live out its days in suffering until its body quit of its own accord. In Bangkok, their holy work involved keeping hundreds of crippled, sick and unwanted dogs alive, only to live out their days in tiny cribs. The Bangkok facility barely had enough resources to give each dog a blanket to lie on. I honour the staff's intentions but question their actions in the face of such intense day to day suffering.
Religion aside, I also question the motives of many animal "rescuers". Elephants are removed from hard labour in the Thai logging industry only to be reenslaved as tourist entertainers and as income for its owner. Tigers are rescued from euthanasia after years of service to a circus, only to be put in a too-small cage for another twenty years. Foreign animals are born in captivity and brought to schools so that children can have the opportunity to see and touch them. It would be easier if we all spoke a common language and they could voice their choices.

In mid 2009 I was invited to Sweden to document pig and mink farming. The photos are meant to be used as part of the environmental agenda for the upcoming elections. This gallery chronicles visits to mink farms throughout southern Sweden over the course of a few days.

Poaching in Africa isn't only a problem for endangered species. In the forests of Budongo, alone, thousands upon thousands of animals are caught and killed in snares; animals that wouldn't be eaten by humans anyway. Furthermore, three quarters of the traps placed in the forest are never found again because of the incredible density of the vegetation. Animals are dying in traps needlessly. Primates have the cognitive skills to remove themselves from the snares but are usually maimed in the process.
This was my first foray into documenting poaching and bush meat issues in Africa (specifically Cameroon and Uganda). I hope to be back in Cameroon and the DRC soon to shoot more aspects of the bush meat trade.

I meet so many beautiful faces while working on "We Animals". Here are a select few.
Check back often for updated photos!

Thankfully, there are thousands of animal rescue groups and millions of people around the globe dedicated to helping animals. I've been really fortunate to volunteer with some incredible animal rescue organizations over the years. Utah-based "Best Friends" was a huge presence in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Farm Sanctuary has been rescuing farm animals for over twenty years and I've had the priviledge of photographing for them since 2003. In July 2008 I travelled to Florida to photograph the incredible work of Dr. Noon, founder of "Save the Chimps". Check back soon for more photographs... I have so many to post! There is also a list of wonderful local and international rescue groups in the "links" section of this site.

"Ask the experimenters why they experiment on animals, and the answer is: 'Because the animals are like us.' Ask the experimenters why it is morally OK to experiment on animals, and the answer is: 'Because the animals are not like us.' Animal experimentation rests on a logical contradiction."
-Professor Charles R. Magel

There are few events as blatantly cruel as rodeos. I am amazed and ashamed that millions of people still attend these events each year in Canada and the Unites States. Horses are routinely injured and killed in chuck wagon racing. Bulls and horses are beaten, choked and maimed. The calf roping is the most horrific event of all: men demonstrate their brute strength by roping and tackling calves, some as young as eight weeks old. Out of view of the spectators, electric prods are used on all the animals.
Reconsider visiting any rodeos, and better yet, speak up against them.
These photos were taken across Canada between 2002 and 2007.

What separates a sanctuary from a zoo or any other institution that keeps animals in its care is that it places the best interests of its residents above all else. The animals are there to be protected and live out their lives in comfort. They are forevermore exempt from being used for food, entertainment or vivisection. More and more people are taking an interest in creating sanctuary spaces for animals, and I've had the privilege of working with many such organizations. These photographs represent peaceful places that have been created by humans for our fellow animals.

The following photographs form a narrative about what I saw while documenting La Corrida, the bullfights, in Spain in August 2009.

Most of the planet can now function without the use of animal labour. Technology has all but made animal exploitation unnecessary. However, we continue to use them as cheap and voiceless labour, largely for the production of food and entertainment.

Most parents bring their children to zoos because it's educational and wondrous to behold such beautiful animals. I would argue that seeing an animal in captivity as it exhibits behaviours of stress and boredom while living in a sterile environment is much less educational than, for example, watching a National Geographic video of animals filmed in the wild. Zoos are major tourist attractions because they are a form of entertainment. Every time someone pays a zoo entrance fee, they are perpetuating the myth that animals are on this earth for our pleasure and our use.
I photograph at zoos regularly and I know that they are not all bad or ill-intentioned places. Many practice ethical breeding programs for the purpose of reintroducing animals to the wild. Many have adequate space, food, shelter and enrichment for the animals. Sadly, this is the exception rather than the norm.
While I'm photographing captive animals I often hear tourists comment on how sad an animal looks, or they point out to their children that pacing behaviours indicate stress and boredom. I don't know how we can be cognitive of such things, but then stifle any empathy that might occur for the animal. Perhaps it's the questioning of our ethics that is stifled, which then shuts down our ability to feel compassion or rage towards the injustice of useless captivity.