On 24th June 2023, a British animal rights direct action group Animal Rising stormed a stage and glued themselves to gates during an event at the Royal Highland Show, Scotland’s biggest annual Agricultural show, held in Islington, outside Edinburgh.
The particular event the activists disrupted was the Golden Shears World Championship held at around 1.45 pm. Protesters dressed in the typical Animal Rising pink t-shirts reading ‘Animal Rising: For All Life’ and held up signs with facts about the animal agriculture industry. Other activists glued themselves to gates where sheep were being kept during the event.
The act of shearing sheep is one of the many causes of suffering of the wool industry, and this is why vegans do not wear any wool.
The vegan activist said the goal of their protest was to continue a national conversation about our broken relationship with other animals and nature that began in April when the group disrupted the Grand National at Aintree, and the Scottish Grand National in Ayr. Sarah McCaffrey, one of the protestors, said: “We are here to engage in conversation around our broken relationship with animals and nature. We know that we are a nation of animal lovers, but that is not reflected in our actions. This is clear to see in Golden Shears World Championship where sheep are put in positions where they are visibly stressed and uncomfortable, purely for our entertainment. It is also evident in our use of horses for ‘show-jumping’ at this same event, and in our food system where we send one billion animals to be killed every year in the UK alone. That is why Animal Rising are here today taking action. But disruption is only part of the story, dialogue is key too if we are to create the lasting change we need: a safe, secure food plant-based food system and programme of rewilding.”
