From their point of view.

I took these photos while recently documenting a rural community event that holds competitions for local farmers to show farmed animals.

Attending these farming events feels quite surreal to me.

In many ways, the people attending this event are like me and so I easily fit in. They look like me. They speak like me. We share many of the same community values. But, we are seeing what is taking place here through very different lenses.

They see animals as resources—born to be controlled, used, and killed for human purposes.

I see sentient beings born into a human system they did not choose and cannot leave. I see despondent victims who, through no other choice, have surrendered to their bleak existence. Their bodies, movement, and every aspect of their lives controlled by human decisions with no autonomy over what happens to them.

They see a tradition that is normal, something to be proud of. I see domination, enslavement, and violence.

We are looking at the same scene but we are not seeing the same thing.

I am seeing through the eyes of the animals; from the victims’ point of view.