Anti-fox hunting campaigners march telling Theresa May to keep the ban
The team of the party for the animals in UK (Animal Welfare Party) headed to London on Monday 29th of May to support the Make Hunting History march which was organised by an alliance of anti-hunt campaign groups. The need for this protest came after the Conservative party released their manifesto on 18th May in which Theresa May made a controversial pledge to allow a free vote in parliament on the hunting ban if she were to win the election in June.
Animal Welfare Party marches in central London over Theresa May’s plans to allow a free vote on repealing the ban.
Many people brought placards that they had made at home, fox masks, costumes, and flags. Professor Andrew Knight, who is standing for the Animal Welfare Party against Mrs May in the constituency of Maidenhead, said it is “profoundly disturbing” that the Prime Minister thinks fox hunting is acceptable. “We need to have leaders of our country that have basic compassion for animals and other vulnerable members of our society,” he said. “Theresa May clearly, I think, is unfit to lead this country, if she clearly and demonstrably lacks these basic qualities.”
In a poll of voters carried out by The Independent, it was revealed that 64 per cent of the British public disagree with the statement that the ban on hunting should be reversed. Since David Cameron brought the Conservatives to power in 2010 there has been many attempts to repeal the hunting act passed by Tony Blair in 2004. This has meant that, on several occasions, protesters gathered outside the houses of parliament in wildlife costumes, holding banners and waving protest flags. On Monday however, this was clearly the largest anti-hunting march in recent history and organisers claimed afterwards that there were around 4,000 attendees.
(Source: Animal Justice Project and Metro UK)