In Defense of Animals joined forces with fellow animal advocates in Berkeley, California, last month to host acclaimed photographer, activist, writer, and teacher, Isabella La Rocca González for an unforgettable presentation, reading, and Q&A session that captivated a full house.

Her profound book Censored Landscapes: The Hidden Reality of Farming Animals exposes the deception and violence of animal farming (without graphic imagery) through evocative photographs, personal storytelling, and poetry, all supported by meticulous scientific research. It reveals the connection between the exploitation and killing of farmed animals and the exploitation of workers and immigrants, environmental destruction, public health, and social justice.

Animals raised for food are the most tormented and killed beings on Earth. Censored Landscapes illuminates their inherent worth as emotional, intelligent, and desiring individuals. With endorsements from Moby, Robert Grillo of Free from Harm, Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee, and other notable advocates, the work facilitates personal change and transformation through the power of art and uncomfortable but necessary truths.

It affirms farmed animals as sensitive beings — not commodities or unfeeling objects — whose suffering remains hidden behind the closed doors of farms and slaughterhouses. Through portraits of landscapes, seemingly benign farms and facility exteriors, and the forgotten non-human animal victims, Censored Landscapes goes deeper to reveal the enslavement and grief endured by farmed animals, while also highlighting their worthiness to be free from human harm.

By sharing the truth behind their lives, this stirring work challenges the cultural conditioning, eating habits, and profit-driven motives that sustain the exploitation and killing of animals. When people recognize that these animals are just like our animal companions in all the ways that matter — and that we don’t need to eat their flesh, milk, and eggs to survive and thrive — the rationale for their exploitation and slaughter unravels.

We must acknowledge and confront the abuse and killing at the core of all animal farming, refuse to participate in it, and advocate for a transition to a plant-based, slaughter-free food system. The dedication of activists and artists like Isabella La Rocca González, who dare to expose the cruelty of all animal farming, and the horrific suffering and fear endured by farmed animals, is crucial in the fight to raise awareness and defend them. May their courage to be a voice for the most ignored and vulnerable inspire all of us to speak up for them too.

See our Vegan Wake Up Call and join us.