Fairfax Media shared the top prize on Thursday night at the annual Voiceless Awards, which recognise contributions to animal protection.

Journalist Susan Cheney won the top print award for her Good Weekend piece "They shoot horses, don't they?", which exposed the treatment of old, sick or unprofitable racehorses.

ABC1's Four Corners reporter Sarah Ferguson and producer Deb Masters won the broadcast category for their report, "Another Bloody Business", which exposed the brutal cull of 20,000 Australian sheep in Pakistan.

Runner-up in the print category was The Sunday Age's Maris Beck for "The monkey farm", an expose on government funded monkey colonies being used to provide animals for lab testing.

The runner-up in the broadcast category was "The quick and the dead", ABC Radio National's Background Briefing investigation by Timothy McDonald into the greyhound racing industry.