Call for Foie Gras Ban Continues in Cambridge

Animal Rights Cambridge have been lobbying Cambridge City Council to get them to ban Foie Gras on council premises and land. We met with the councillors to deliver our petition and one of our members addressed the council's Strategy and Scrutiny Committee about the cruelty involved in Foie Gras production.

The local paper, the Cambridge Evening News, published an article about our campaign and ran a poll asking the question 'Should foie gras be banned?' with 51.3% of respondents agreeing that it should!

We still have a way to go in getting this through the council processes but we hope to see this motion past and for Cambridge to join the ranks of councils like York that say no to foie gras.

Activists take on Zippos Circus in Cambridge

Zippos Circus who still use animals in there acts were in Cambridge between 22-27th October and Animal Rights Cambridge were there to opposed there cruel show. Letters were delivered to shops around Cambridge that were displaying Zippos posters leading to many posters being removed by kind shopkeepers.

The letter highlighted the following facts about Zippos:

-Zippos employed a man who defended infamous abuse at Chipperfield's circus in court. After watching footage of the thrashing and kicking of a baby chimpanzee he was asked “See anything which would constitute cruelty?” he replied unequivocally “No". Asked if he would do the same he said “Yes”!

-Zippos Circus have been exposed by Animal Defenders International, for keeping their horses in trailers without exercise for hours on end.

-'The way that young girl brandished the whip was obviously scary to the horses' 'When the man raised his hand the budgies flinched. Every time!' - Audience Member, 2009 Performance.

The first protest of the week was met with repression with 3 campaigners being arrested despite the protest being totally peaceful. The protesters were taken to March Police Station as Cambridge was full and held overnight. One accepted a reprimand and two were charged one with breach of a Section 14 direction and the other with Obstruction. Bail conditions were used to prevent the two from returning to protest or speaking to each other.

Despite this protests against the circus continued in force. Leaflets were given out and protesters continued there peaceful opposition to the antiquated exploitative show.