‘HIDDEN’ Shines a Light on Humans’ ‘Invisible War’ With Other Animals

If ever there were a time when humans needed a book that would take their own spiteful speciesism and throw it back in their face, it’s now. Together with 29 other award-winning photojournalists, We Animals Media founder Jo-Anne McArthur is giving us just that: an unflinching book aptly titled HIDDEN: Animals in the Anthropocene, which examines the violent war that humans have waged on the other animals we’re meant to share planet Earth with peacefully.

With Captive, McArthur showed us life in seedy roadside zoos and challenged readers to reconsider the imprisonment of animals staring back at them from enclosures. With HIDDEN, she and her photographer cohorts offer a memorial to animals inspired by the war photography that has shaped history.

“[P]erhaps no images have made a greater impact than the photography of war. They told stories that changed the way we think about the history they captured. They were unflinching and unapologetic and they called us to action. Today, a growing number of photographers are turning their lenses to an invisible war, one that few people see, and that is the war on animals,” McArthur explains.

Through HIDDEN, she also invites many to reconsider their relationship with animals.

From a fox (who, in nature, would’ve been part of a pack made up of family members, including siblings, mates, and mothers of all ages) about to be killed and skinned on a fur farm in Poland …

… to a pig screaming out while being clubbed inside a slaughterhouse in Thailand …

… to a masked macaque in Indonesia being forced to perform in a street show …

… to a bull bleeding out after a bullfight while the mules who will drag his dead body away look on …

… to dead kittens inside a jar at a veterinary school in Canada, likely to be used for classroom dissection …

… McArthur and her friends behind the lens have seen it all. And now, they’ve compiled it into one epic, emotional collection of photography that shines a much-needed light on the animals exploited and killed by humans for experimentation, food, clothing, entertainment, tradition, and religion.

Although still in its crowdfunding stage, HIDDEN has already sold more than 500 copies. For animals—like the solemn pig gracing the book’s front cover, who would’ve enjoyed listening to music and even playing video games had he or she not been a victim of the pork industry—this book needs to be seen.

“HIDDEN is a historical document, a memorial, and an indictment of what is and should never again be.”

Its pages and pages of once-invisible victims should be witnessed by as many eyes as possible—by everyone, really, since every single person has the power to make a difference for animals.

“[T]his can only happen with your support.”

McArthur’s HIDDEN is one of the heaviest coffee table books created to date (and not only because it weighs 5 pounds). Its contents have the ability to open many eyes and save countless more lives. Your support of HIDDEN will directly contribute to the vital work that We Animals Media does for cows, pigs, primates, and so many other sentient beings who just want to be left in peace.