Behind the Curtain: The Hidden Lives of Dairy Cows at the NY State Fair

For the past 3 years, Woodstock Sanctuary staff have gone to the New York State Fair to document the Dairy Cow Birthing Center. Our hope is that through this documentation we can show the truth behind the "family friendly" exterior of the exhibit. 

For the 2024 State Fair, we wanted to take this documentation to the next level. We wanted to capture more compelling images that could be shown to a wider audience. That’s where We Animals came in. We Animals is a nonprofit animal photojournalism agency that is committed to exposing the hidden lives of animals in our food, fashion, and entertainment systems. We knew that they would be able to give a new perspective and tell the story of the cows exploited at the Birthing Center and of the humans experiencing the exhibit. 

A mother cow cleaning her calf in front of spectators shortly after giving birth / Courtesy of We Animals Media

We Animals founder Jo-Anne McArthur spent three days at the Birthing Center this year, documenting multiple births and talking to visitors and volunteers. The powerful images that she captured are now available for all to use here. 

Our hope is that this partnership will allow more people to see the bizarre spectacle of the birthing center for what it is—propaganda for the dairy industry that is more focused on appearance than reality. We also encourage organizations and individuals who want to end birthing centers local to them to use these images for their own campaigns. 

This is only the beginning! There is so much more to come next year—we can’t wait to share how we will use these images in our fight to shut down the birthing center at the New York State Fair. 

Finally, we want to extend a heartfelt thank you to those who have contributed in support of this campaign—your generosity made this partnership possible. Click here to help us continue this important work.