Breaking: Peaceful PETA Protesters Violently Assaulted at Crufts
9th March 2025
Breaking: Peaceful PETA Protesters Violently Assaulted at Crufts
Birmingham – This evening, two PETA supporters, one of whom is disabled and in a wheelchair, peacefully protesting the “Best in Show” at Crufts, the world’s largest “pedigree” dog show, were violently assaulted by security staff. One of the animal allies holding a sign reading, “🖤 Dogs? Boycott Breeders,” was tipped out of his wheelchair, and the other was repeatedly punched before being dragged off the premises. Footage of the disruption is available here.
“As a wheelchair user, I especially object to Crufts’ glamourisation of animals with disabilities” says 69-year-old Robert Groves, who became paralysed 19 years ago and has raised £150,000 for animal welfare through sport. “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.”
“Crufts is a celebration of everything that’s wrong with dog breeding,” says PETA Senior Campaigns Manager Kate Werner. “We’re calling on everyone who loves dogs to stay far away from this display of chronically sick dogs and never buy an animal from a breeder.”
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.
Contact:
Lucy Watson +44 (0) 20 7837 6327; [email protected]
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