Louise Jorgensen
I am a Toronto-based animal rights activist and animal photojournalist. For nearly two decades I've dedicated my life to advocating for, and capturing and highlighting the hidden victims trapped within our food system. I hope that my photos will draw viewers to connect with them, to encourage empathy, and to see them as individuals and equals, not objects for us to use, exploit, or kill.
As a child, I had a deep connection with non-human animals. There was never a question, for me, whether or not they are sentient. I do this work because I want others to see what I see when I look into the eyes of a nonhuman animal. To see that there is someone equal to you and I looking back from behind those loving and joyful, or frightened and pleading eyes. I strive to capture emotion in eyes and in body language to help others to feel what the individual is feeling and to understand that they, like us, are emotional, sentient beings with the same capacity to feel joy, love, and to suffer.
Witnessing Suffering
Early on, the suffering that I witnessed did affect me in a very negative way. It was emotionally very painful. But I believe that experiencing this inner pain was necessary in order to grow and become stronger, like a grieving period. Now I am not so much sad as I am determined. I’ve redirected the negative energy to positive. The hopelessness to hope. I practice staying focused on the big picture and on the goal, which is to wake the public up to the unnecessary suffering they cause by their choices, to open hearts and minds, and animal liberation.
Photo: Agnes Cseke
Changing the Future
Thanks to social media, and the internet in general, people are getting information that wasn’t available to them before. Attitudes are changing quickly. Prior to this it was nearly impossible to share information about what is being done to animals with the public. When I was a teen (many, many years ago!) I organized an animal rights club in my high school. We conducted a slaughterhouse investigation but at that time all we could do was create a report and hand it to other students - at least those who were willing to read it. Newspapers and mainstream media had no interest in covering animal rights stories and largely, to this day, still don’t. Thankfully, we no longer need to depend on mainstream media to share stories, investigations, or photos. There are dedicated people around the world advocating for animal rights now in creative and professional ways. But we need more. This is not a trend, it’s a movement. I believe that within the next 10-20 years we will see a major switch to plant-based diets worldwide. I’m certain that future generations will look back at our current treatment of other animals, our planet, and our blind acceptance of speciesism with great shame.
Photo: Coco Van / Me with Petunia pig at Wishing Well Sanctuary