Saturday 6th February 2010 - Noah's Ark Zoo Farm Demo

To mark the opening of the new season at Noah's Ark Zoo Farm, activists from Bristol Animal Rights Collective (BARC) launched their new campaign against the zoo. A successful demonstration was held outside the zoo to remind the public of the findings of the recent undercover investigation.

Late last year an investigator working for the Captive Animals' Protection Society exposed Noah's Ark for illegally burying a deceased tiger named Tira on zoo land. Tira was found to be on loan from the Great British Circus, one of the few remaining UK circuses still to use performing animals. She died last year, 10 days after giving birth to four cubs, all of the cubs subsequently died too.

The impact of the negative press surrounding the zoo's links with the circus and the on-going council investigation was evident in the surprisingly low number of people visiting the zoo on the first day of the season. We had a really good response from members of the public. Many cars tooted their support as they passed and several families decided not to go in after speaking with us for a few minutes and reading our leaflets, many were understandably horrified to learn that the zoo has been breeding animals for the circus.

Anthony Bush, the zoo owner came out and chatted politely to us for quite sometime, although we know a lot of the explanations he tried to give us about the undercover investigation were untrue and we have video evidence to prove it! He also preached some of his creationist nonsense at us, many of the displays on the animal enclosures aim to disprove evolution! He has admitted himself that he hopes to persuade people to his way of thinking, many of these people will be children on 'educational' school visits.

We will continue to protest against Noah's Ark throughout their open season. There will be regular demonstrations outside the zoo as well as information stalls to let the public know what really goes on behind the scenes.

What can you do:
Contact BARC for information on future protests: www.bristolanimalrights.org.uk
Write to the council asking them to revoke Noah's Ark's zoo licence: graham.turner@n-somerset.gov.uk
Sign our online petition against the zoo.
Don't visit any zoos or animal circuses: www.captiveanimals.org

Next demo:
Sat 13th Feb, 11am at the zoo: Clevedon Road, Wraxall, Bristol, BS48 1PG

View the BBC TV programme, Inside Out West online here.