According to Voiceless, which uses graphic and confronting imagery in its new campaign, Australia lags behind the European Union, which over the past decade has passed the world's toughest animal cruelty laws.

Actor Hugo Weaving fronts the campaign to be launched today.

''If I treated a dog the way pigs and chickens are treated on these farms, I'd likely be prosecuted,'' Weaving says.

Voiceless' strategy is to make the public ''emotional'' and direct that emotion towards politicians, according to chief executive of Voiceless, Dana Campbell.

''We all know how politics works; it's not going to go anywhere unless politicians know there are votes behind those opinions,'' Ms Campbell said.

Channels Nine and Seven have promised Voiceless free TV ad spots, and Ms Campbell is talking to GetUp! about continuing the campaign over the coming months.

She said that Australian animal law has been hamstrung because the people charged with enforcing it are the same people whose job is to protect the profits of food producers.

Chairman of the Barristers Animal Welfare Panel, Graeme McEwen, agreed.

''Animal welfare … is administered by the departments of primary industries,'' he said.

''It's like putting the minister for resources and mineral development in charge of climate change.

''These departments view themselves as the friend of industry. Nothing wrong with that; but they should not be in charge of animal welfare,'' Mr McEwen said.