Free From Harm

Beyond our incredible romance with traditional Italian cuisine is a dark and ugly side that is conveniently hidden away. Italian photographer Francesco Scipioni has the courage to bear witness to this ugly truth and, from his new collection of photographs here, asks us to do the same. … READ ON

The first animals I encountered were a group of isolated dairy calves who appeared to be just days old, housed in a dirty, dilapidated and fly-infested shed off the side of the road. Their expressions clearly conveyed being sad, lonely and bored in the absence of maternal care and their mother’s milk. And there was no sign of any human caretakers. … READ ON

This ongoing gallery of well know and lesser known figures from the world of animal rights and vegan culture is a wonderful way to get to match the names with the faces. Some come from academia, some from popular culture. Some are great authors and speakers, while others are political, social justice or cultural icons. Our hand picked photos and quotes attempt to capture the essence of who these people are and what means the most to them. … READ ON

Italian photographer Francesco Scipioni conducted a day-long photoshoot in an Italian slaughterhouse and, as a result, became a vegetarian, he reports. Here is his collection. … READ ON

Doris is a beautiful, docile and highly intelligent red hen that we adopted from a Chicago Public School chick hatching program. She charms and delights everyone who meets her. Unfortunately, as an egg laying hen, her life is centered around a struggle to survive the debilitating and life threatening health conditions that afflict most hens today that are bred by giant hatcheries to produce up to 5 times more eggs than what nature intended for their bodies. … READ ON

We’ve written about one of our adopted hens Sandye that we often call the “mystery hen” because we know so little about what her life was like before we adopted her, other than the farmer who discarded her said she was no longer laying eggs and therefore could not keep her. We found her at a sanctuary for animals in not so good condition: sparse feathers, missing toenails, jaggedly clipped beak, some deformity to her head. … READ ON

McArthur shares her work with us here on freefromharm.org to provide our members with a “snapshot” (no pun intended) of the work of this daring and innovative photojournalist who has travelled the world to uncover the experience of animals in a human-dominated world where humans use animals for their own ends without even thinking (or perhaps caring) about how this impacts them. But the photos clearly capture and communicate the emotions and thoughts of the animal subjects. We are compelled to see their point of view, like never before. … READ ON

Precious Animals is a photo-project about the relationship between animals and humans, focusing on animals as manufactured consumer products on the one hand, with efficiency playing the leading role, and these very consumers and their habit of pampering their own pets and other cuddly two and four-legged creatures, on the other hand. … READ ON

This month we found ourselves fostering an orphaned duck for three days we named Suzanna who comes from Chicago Animal Control. Within 48 hours, she went from fearing us to friending us. And we quickly realized what a deeply sensitive, intelligent and affectionate bird she is. We knew nothing about ducks before we met Suzanna. I did some research and found that she was a Pekin duck, a species commonly raised as a meat commodity. … READ ON