Birmingham Native Violently Assaulted During Peaceful Protest at Crufts
11th March 2025
Birmingham Native Violently Assaulted During Peaceful Protest at Crufts
Birmingham – On Sunday night, Robert Groves, a 69-year-old PETA supporter who is disabled and in a wheelchair, was violently assaulted by security staff while peacefully protesting the “Best in Show” at Crufts, the world’s largest “pedigree” dog show. The animal ally held a sign reading, “🖤 Dogs? Boycott Breeders” before his wheelchair was tipped and he was roughly flipped on his back. A security officer swore and taunted him as he was removed from the premises. Footage of the action is available here.
“As a wheelchair user, I especially object to Crufts’ glamourisation of animals with disabilities,” says Robert Groves, who became paralysed 19 years ago and has raised £150,000 for animal welfare charities. “Whether they’re Breathing Impaired Breeds (BIB) like bulldogs and pugs, suffocating behind unnaturally flat faces, or dachshunds and corgis whose too-short legs cause lifelong back and knee pain, these “frankendogs” are engineered for human aesthetics, not the animals’ quality of life.”
“It’s utterly shameful that Crufts’ hired thugs attacked an individual who sought only to peacefully call out the dog breeding industry, which deliberately creates animals with painful, debilitating deformities,” says PETA Senior Campaigns Manager Kate Werner.
The BBC dropped Crufts in 2008 after revelations emerged about the prevalence of hereditary defects among pedigree dogs, including some Crufts prize winners, and the RSPCA refuses to attend the show. A group of veterinary professionals have also previously spoken out against Crufts, noting that the “arbitrary breed standards that the competition’s judges use to rate the dogs call for them to be bred for extremely exaggerated physical features, regardless of the damage to their health. As a result, dogs are suffering.”
In addition to promoting these grotesque standards, Crufts also exacerbates the homeless companion animal overpopulation crisis by encouraging people to dash out and buy the latest “must-have” breed. Meanwhile rescue centres – which take in an estimated 130,000 dogs every year – burst at the seams with lovable animals waiting to be adopted.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” – points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow PETA on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.
Mr Groves is available for interviews.
Contact:
Lucy Watson +44 (0) 20 7837 6327; [email protected]
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