|
We’re stepping up the heat on animal-act circuses as they start touring the country. Last
 week we protested outside Duffy’s Circus in Galway with more than twenty ARAN supporters who peacefully protested against the use of animals in their acts. During the protest we encouraged literally hundreds of passing cars, trucks and buses to boycott animal-act circuses – the amount of traffic hooting in support was consistent throughout the two hour protest – one attendee at the event said the beeping would not have happened ten years ago, and it’s true! The coverage of our protest received airtime on Galway Bay FM and their online websites. Also covering our circus campaign this week was Joe Duffy’s Liveline on RTE, 4FM, The Irish Star, The Cork News, Avondhu and the weekend edition of The Irish Times. We are also continuing to protest against ‘The Courtney Brothers Circus’ who are parading a family of five elephants across towns and cities here. The circus is now in Bandon Co. Cork and we've just released pictures of the elephants and camels and to the very naked eye you can tell these animals are suffering.  In Waterford, our local campaigners are now starting a public education outreach program with an information table that is already reaching out to the people there. This information is vital in changing hearts and minds and we hear from our local supporters down there that most people stopping by the table have said that they would never bring their children to a circus with animals. The outreach program gives us a huge opportunity to change hearts and minds. Also this week we staged an exciting press photo-call for PETA on Dublin's O'Connell Street to raise awareness about vegetarian and veganism which garnered great publicity, click here, including a nearly twenty minute discussion about factory farms, slaughterhouses and peoples attitudes towards killing animals for food on Newstalk radio. The event also got front page on The Herald, The Metro, a huge picture on The Irish Mirror and a nice picture on The Irish Star. It also hit websites such as breakingnews.ie and broadsheet.ie. Our Irish fur farm investigation was also mentioned on Thejournal.ie in which Irish actress, Rachel Pilkington, spoke about the need for Irish fur farms to shut down on grounds of cruelty to animals. We’ve lost track of the consistent press coverage we have been receiving since January. Not only is our press coverage increasing and working, but we are also marking a huge increase in new members, supporters and people wanting to get more actively involved with our work. We are also doing more events and demonstrations than ever before – all because our supporters get us out there. As a result, more hearts and minds are changing for the better, thus changing the face of animal abuse in Ireland. ARAN continues to stage peaceful, professional events and campaigns, and the public is getting our message more than ever before – the words 'Cruelty to animals' and 'Animal rights' is certainly becoming a household name.
 |
|
ARAN STEPS UP CAMPAIGN TO BAN ANIMAL-ACT CIRCUSES IN IRELAND
|
|