PETA Calls for Sark Island Festival Committee to Cancel Cruel Sheep Races 

PETA Calls for Sark Island Festival Committee to Cancel Cruel Sheep Races

Sark, Channel Islands – Ahead of The Sark Sheep Racing Festival, which sees sheep race with teddy bear jockeys tied to their backs, PETA sent an urgent letter (available here) to the Sark Carnival Committee Members calling on them to race only willing human participants instead.

PETA points out that harassing sheep to force them to run and exposing them to noisy, rowdy spectators is frightening for these sensitive animals. PETA also notes that exploiting animals for entertainment sends a damaging message that these animals are little more than props for amusement, rather than feeling, thinking individuals.

“[S]heep do not consent to participating in this confusing and stressful event and should be left in peace,” says PETA Vice President of Vegan Corporate Projects Dawn Carr. “There are plenty of fun and family-friendly rural activities without animals that can be celebrated. How about a potato and spoon race, a hobby horse jump competition, or a tractor tug of war.”

In addition, Sheep exploited for their fleece are genetically manipulated to grow an unnatural amount of wool and routinely abused on farms and in shearing sheds. PETA entities have shared exposés of 117 wool-industry operations around the world – including in the UK – where workers have been documented kicking, punching, and slitting the throats of conscious, struggling sheep. Farmers commonly sever lambs’ tails and castrate the males without pain relief. When their wool production slows, at around 5 or 6 years old, the animals are crammed onto lorries and sent on gruelling journeys to slaughterhouses.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat, wear, or abuse in any other way” – points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow PETA on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327; [email protected]

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