Animal rights protester prepared to break law

AN ANIMAL rights protester has indicated she is prepared to break the law in order to “do what’s right” by the horses at Epsom this weekend. The Jockey Club was last week granted a High Court injunction against Animal Rising demonstrators planning to disrupt the Betfred Derby on Saturday.

The application was lodged by the club, which owns Epsom Downs. It said this was because it felt the organisation made it “explicitly clear” it intends to breach security at the Surrey racecourse to stage a disruptive protest.

During a debate on Sky News on Thursday morning, Animal Rising spokeswoman Claudia Penna Rojas was asked if she is prepared to break the law. She replied: “I’m prepared to do what’s necessary to do what’s right by these animals and try and prevent them from being harmed.”

Pressed on whether that means breaking the law, she said: “If it means breaking the law, we know that law isn’t always equal to morality and we know that people have had to break laws throughout history to create the change that we need. And, again, what this is about is protecting these animals.

“It’s about trying to create the change that we need to see where we don’t see animals as property, where we don’t see them as objects that are used for our entertainment and value them and care for them.”

Nevin Truesdale, chief executive at The Jockey Club, replied: “That’s for the police and the courts to decide and the court says where we will end up because there is an injunction in place, they will be in contempt of court and therefore it is illegal.” Mr Truesdale said the sport “has never been safer” for horses.