CHRIS PLEASANCE: Undercover footage has revealed the distressing conditions suffered by hundreds of dogs inside what is thought to be South Korea's largest dog meat auction house. Investigators from US charity Lady Freethinker captured images from the Nakwon auction house, in the city of Namyangju, over the summer... Their footage shows keepers pulling the yelping animals around their cages using metal snares so buyers could get a better look at them. It then shows an auctioneer calling out bids from a crowd of buyers... The footage was recorded ahead of Bok Nal, the hottest period of…

TOM BEGGS: Farm sanctuaries exist to save animals from harmful environments and to give them their “forever home,” where they are kept safe for the remainder of their lives. Farm sanctuaries were created specifically in response to the violence that farmed animals experience in factory farms... There are hundreds of farm sanctuaries in the United States... Although sanctuaries have a primary function of rescuing farmed animals, many farm sanctuaries advocate for animal rights and Veganism, engage in public outreach and fundraising, and are open to the public for visitations in order to help…

BETTINA MAKALINTAL: As shoppers have cut back on animal products — whether due to environmental concerns, health issues, or an ethical stance against animal cruelty—and look for appealing replacements, there's no shortage of companies offering up choices. While dairy alternatives have seen the most stratospheric growth in recent years, meatless options have also seen a surge in popularity as beef and chicken substitutes become more enticing to the mainstream, with a 37.8 percent growth in sales from 2017 to 2019, according to research from the Good Food Institute... It's clear from…

ANIMAL OUTLOOK: After a two-year career working undercover inside several factory farms, Animal Outlook investigator Erin Wing now reveals her identity, stepping out of the shadows to shine a light on the stomach-churning horrors she witnessed at her most recent — and last — investigation at Dick Van Dam Dairy, a factory farm in Southern California. The hard-hitting new video illuminates the all-too-common cruelty found on this facility that supplies brands owned by Dean Foods, which recently filed for bankruptcy. Investigators followed a truck from the facility to a stockyard, and then…

GLENN GREENWALD: Animal agriculture industry groups defending factory farms engage in campaigns of surveillance, reputation destruction, and other forms of retaliation against industry critics and animal rights activists, documents obtained through a FOIA request from the U.S. Department of Agriculture reveal. That the USDA possesses these emails and other documents demonstrates the federal government’s knowledge of, if not participation in, these industry campaigns. These documents detail ongoing monitoring of the social media of news outlets, including The Intercept, which report…

DHARMA NOOR: The mission of U.S. Wildlife Services, an office in the Department of Agriculture (USDA), is “to provide federal leadership and expertise to resolve wildlife conflicts to allow people and wildlife to coexist.” In practice, that means slaughtering animals in droves. New data the USDA released shows that in 2019, the program killed approximately 1.2 million animals native to North America. That includes hundreds of gray wolves, black bears, and bobcats, thousands of red foxes, tens of thousands of beavers, and hundreds of thousands of birds. Fewer than 3,000 of those animals were…

HSI: The sources of pandemics can be as varied as the diseases they represent. This paper examines how pandemic and potentially pandemic zoonotic diseases as well as viruses spread directly from the agricultural environments where animals are used as immediate, intermediate or amplifier hosts. The paper finds that the intensification and industrialization of animal agriculture creates a large, susceptible anti-genically naive population, which nature will exploit. Meeting the demand for animal protein by ramping up intensive production around the world alters viral host dynamics, generating…

DAVID PIERSON: In an industrial corner of Singapore, multiplying steadily in bioreactors heated precisely to 82 degrees, real shrimp meat is being grown from samples of the crustacean’s microscopic cells. Fed a nutrient-rich soup meant to mimic its diet in the wild, a single cell can reproduce over a trillion times into a mound of gray translucent flesh. Think of it as meat growing without all the other parts of the animal, including that chalky black vein. The venture is being led by Sandhya Sriram and a team of scientists, who are attempting to upend one of the cornerstones of dim sum.…

EMMA ELSWORTHY: Nearly four in 10 Britons who have turned vegetarian or vegan have done so for a partner, a poll has found. A survey of 2,000 adults who have opted for a meat-free diet found 18 per cent made the switch to keep their other half happy. And 19 per cent wanted to support them in their quest for a healthier diet. A third even claimed they would never have considered giving up meat if it wasn’t for the encouragement of their other half. But it isn’t just partners who influence eating habits, as 16 per cent made changes following requests from the children, and 19 per cent were…

GABBY LANDSVERK: The debate over whether to consume animal products, like meat and dairy, or go entirely plant-based (vegan) is a hot-button issue, often filled with vitriol and name-calling online and in real life... A Florida man was recently arrested for allegedly stabbing his cousin after a heated debate about whether whole cow's milk or almond milk is superior... Recently, the term "vegan" has itself been subject to controversy, as more people opting out of animal-products choose to identify as "plant-based" instead to avoid stigma and cultural baggage linked to veganism, said Nicole…