Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Activists Attacked at Circus Demo

Sheffield Animal Rights Group | 16.06.2006 19:23 | Animal Liberation | Sheffield

On wednesday 14th June 2006 activists were attacked and arrested at the opening night of The Spirit of the Horse in Bakewell. Please read on and consider helping the campaign against the circus.

Two activists attended the opening night of the Spirit of the Horse in Bakewell, to protest against the use of animals in entertainment. They proceeded to leaflet members of the public queuing to enter the big top. The audience was responsive, but the organisers were much more hostile. They were exceptionally aggressive in removing the first of the protestors and physically carried the second away to the road, shocking members of the public. The protestors continued to hand out literature detailing the suffering of the horses in circuses. A member of the circus then took particular offence to one of the activists, chasing him away with a metal rod pulled from a farm fence and then punching him in the chest. The attacker from the circus was shouting abuse in perfect English and called the police to make allegations of racial assault, this call was also made in fluent English.

The police soon arrived and arrested the two activists on suspicion of racially aggravated assault and criminal damage. The criminal damage was in reference to some placards advertising the show, which were allegedly damaged.

The activists were held in police custody for 24 hours, as the man who attacked the protestors claimed he could not speak English and needed an interpreter, to exaggerate the false allegation of racism. (Or maybe the delay was because the police were watching the World Cup, rather than carrying out their duties.) The activists were then released with all charges dropped, but the police had no intentions of arresting anyone from the circus!

Clearly genuine animal rights activists do not hold negative views against any race, as they would respect all life. The claims of racism put forward by members of the circus were completely fictitious.

Please act against The Spirit of the Horse, as they clearly have a blatant disregard for human and non-human life. Please organise a protest against them for when they come to your area. For venues see their website  https://secure.equestriantheatre.co.uk/bookings/venuelisting.asp


For more details and resources on animals in circuses please contact CAPS  http://www.captiveanimals.org/


Sheffield Animal Rights Group
- e-mail: shefuniarinfo@riseup.net

Additions

'Michael Caine'

05.07.2006 12:47

Hello

I am form Sheffield Animal Rights, who posted the original article, and would like to clarify a few points.

The statement 'Clearly genuine animal rights activists do not hold negative views against any race, as they would respect all life.' remains true, with the key word being GENUINE. It is not a case of our group giving guidlines to other activists, but simple fact. People are animals, and so a GENUINE animal rights activists would also care for the rights of people - if somebody was to call themselves animal rights, but hold racist veiws, then they realy wouldnt be animal rights at all.

Also, there is are clear historical links between animal rights activists and anti racist activists. Hunt saboteurs have continualy been approached by the National Front and been told them were to go. I also once worked for the vegan campaigning group Viva! Before one Viva! protest against the religious slaughter of animals(to highlight the methods of killing without painkillers) the BNP rang up to let us know that they'd be coming along and were told that they would not be welcome. I myself am in contact with hunt saboteurs and AR activists across the country and know of many people campaigning on both fronts.

As for London fur demo 'racism', the chances are that the London AR activists were labeled as racist, just as we from Sheffield were, when they were probably just protesting against animal abuse. If they had shouted racist abuse then they shouldn't, and usualy wouldnt be welcomed by AR activists. And either way it was over 15 years ago!

By calling youreself Rabbits dont cry you have exposed yourself as being a insensitive bastard.

Go find something constructive to do.

Sheffield Animal Rights Group


Comments

Display the following 14 comments

  1. actual harm — ben
  2. I'm guessing it is the short guy — fredrico
  3. Race and AR — My name is Michael Caine
  4. More smears — Badger
  5. ................. — Tim
  6. AR and Race (again) — My name is Michael Caine
  7. More smears — Badger
  8. TO=My Name Is Michael Caine — Tim
  9. Race, AR and nothing else — rabbits don't cry (the person previously known as michael caine)
  10. Michael, you have not disproved anything. — Badger
  11. Race and Sheffield — rabbits don't cry (the person previously known as michael caine)
  12. I see your point, but... — Badger
  13. Race & membership criteria for genuine AR activists. — rabbits don't cry (the person previously known as michael caine)
  14. Well — Badger
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech