Two women and a man are arrested after animal rights activists scaled DEFRA head office in bird flu protest
- Met Police called at around 6.30am to reports two people had scaled building
- Pair climbed the outer wall and held poster reading: ‘Bird flu: our next pandemic’
- Three arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and causing a public nuisance
- Animal Justice Project wanted to highlight the ‘catastrophic’ impact of bird flu
Three people have been arrested after animal rights protesters scaled the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs head office building in London to draw attention to the bird flu crisis and intensive farming practices.
The Metropolitan Police said they were called shortly before 6.30am to reports that two people had scaled the building on Marsham Street, Westminster, which also houses the Home Office and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
The pair climbed the outer wall of the building before unfurling a huge nine by 15-foot banner which read: ‘Bird flu: our next pandemic. End animal agriculture.’
Police said two women and a man have been held on suspicion of criminal damage and causing a public nuisance.
Two animal rights activists climbed the outer wall of the DEFRA building before unfurling a huge nine by 15-foot banner which read: ‘Bird flu: our next pandemic. End animal agriculture’
The Animal Justice Project, which campaigns for an end to animal farming, said its members had carried out the protest to highlight the ‘catastrophic’ impact of bird flu being spread through chicken sheds.
A spokesperson for the Animal Justice Project said: ‘We’re taking action today to pressure the governmental body responsible for minimising the risk of animal-borne diseases to take meaningful steps to stop bird flu.
‘They’ve declared the UK Avian Influenza Prevention Zone (AIPZ), enforcing more stringent biosecurity measures, but this is not enough!
‘No amount of safety measures can negate the huge part that cramming thousands of animals into dirty sheds and slaughterhouses plays in the emergence and spread of infectious disease, and so far, the introduction of the AIPZ has not solved our bird flu crisis as deaths of innocent birds increase daily…
The Animal Justice Project, which campaigns for an end to animal farming, said its members were calling on Defra to prevent ‘an imminent bird flu pandemic’
‘We must end animal agriculture not only to save humans, but to prevent animal suffering as well.
Avian Influenza causes animals to suffer agonising deaths, struggling to breathe as they pass. Whole flocks can be decimated by outbreaks in just a couple of days, without any veterinary attention. Their deaths are recorded, then they are forgotten, as they were never seen as individuals in the first place.
‘But those who haven’t contracted bird flu still suffer enormously. Forced to live in dirty, overcrowded sheds with tens to hundreds of thousands of other animals, they experience painful diseases, untreated injuries and constant stress instead, as their bodies are exploited to meet consumer demand and generate profit.’
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