"I reach out to a worker and receive five panicking birds. The five in his other hand get stuffed into a machine. Five set free, five for the machine."
One woman at a farm, waiting as the spent hens – exhausted and broken from laying hundreds of eggs – are fed into a machine that gases them and grinds them up. Slowly, she reaches out her hand, but the worker ignores her. She tries again, and this time he hands the birds to her. Lina works alongside the machine now. Five get fed into it. Five are handed to her.
Lina is one of many extraordinary women featured by the multimedia documentary project, Unbound, which was created and launched by acclaimed photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur (We Animals, The Ghosts in Our Machine) and Dr. Keri Cronin (Department of Visual Arts, Brock University). Far too often people believe that they do not have enough time, money, or expertise to get involved in animal advocacy. Many of us also misunderstand what it means to be an “activist”. Unbound aims to challenge those notions, and to demonstrate through these inspiring examples how we all can make a difference for the animals with whom we share this planet.