Imagine that it was your last chance to gaze at a clear blue sky, your last breath of fresh air—would you know that these were your final moments on Earth? For these animals on livestock transport trucks, this may have been their first and last glimpse of a world outside the pain and misery of animal agriculture. It may have been their last moments of life.
For a year, Sympathy at Slaughter’s Hannah Elizabeth has been recording the final moments of pigs and cows on transport trucks outside slaughterhouses and at truck stops, with the intention of offering some solace to individual animals before they’re driven to be slaughtered.
“Each time I am there the animals are always so curious, gentle and forgiving enough to come closer,” she says.
“Patterns vary as each truck and each animal has a different story,” she adds. “I am always struck by the penetrating emotion expressed in their eyes. The heart-rending scratches that populate their human-like skin.”
Looking at her images, one can’t help but wonder what these animals, packed into these filthy trucks, must have been going through.
Was this their first moment of human compassion?
Hannah Elizabeth | Sympathy at Slaughter
Was this their last gentle touch …
Hannah Elizabeth | Sympathy at Slaughter
their last friendships …
Hannah Elizabeth | Sympathy at Slaughter
their final peek at sunlight …
Hannah Elizabeth | Sympathy at Slaughter
and their last glimpse of the world outside a slaughterhouse?
Hannah Elizabeth | Sympathy at Slaughter
“See me,” their eyes seem to plead.
Hannah Elizabeth | Sympathy at Slaughter
If nothing else, remember the way that they look directly at the lens pointed at them …
Hannah Elizabeth | Sympathy at Slaughter
how exhausted they look …
Hannah Elizabeth | Sympathy at Slaughter
and terrified …
Hannah Elizabeth | Sympathy at Slaughter
some struggling to stand, surrounded by filth …
Hannah Elizabeth | Sympathy at Slaughter
others overheated, foaming at the mouth and desperate for water …
Hannah Elizabeth | Sympathy at Slaughter
wounded, scraped up, and spray-painted …
Hannah Elizabeth | Sympathy at Slaughter
yet for a moment, unaware of the horrors that await them.
Hannah Elizabeth | Sympathy Not Slaughter
All photos courtesy of Hannah Elizabeth/Sympathy at Slaughter.
Together, we have the power to stop this.
The first step is going vegan.