Wednesday 24th March - Demo Against Schools Open Day at Noah's Ark Zoo Farm
On hearing that Noah's Ark Zoo Farm was holding a free open day for headteachers, activists from BARC felt it would be rude not to go along too. Call us suspicious, but we couldn't help but wonder if our letters to all the local primary schools, letting them know what really goes on behind the scenes at Noah's Ark, might have had something to do with the sudden decision to hold this open day. People we know who work in local schools had never received such an invite before!

It also seems a little too coincidental that the open day happened to be the day after the Council's report had been made public, however, it seems Anthony Bush, the zoo's proprietor may have read a slightly different version of the report than we did. He claimed it cleared them of everything and accused us of spreading 'the darkness' - a new Bush-ism for us, we were quite pleased with that! What he failed to notice in the report were several harsh criticisms by the council, and seven new conditions being added to his zoo licence to try to stop him making similar mistakes again.

Despite the zoo's desperate attempts to drum up some new business, we only counted 5 cars going in during the few hours we were there, and one of them appeared to be a staff one. Mr Bush appears adamant that the zoo will remain open for years to come, but with visitor numbers that low, on a day when it's free to get in, it seems highly unlikely.

We'll be back every Saturday throughout the season, and during the week too when we can. Come and join us, it's always a bit of a giggle.

We are aiming to demo the zoo again this Saturday - please get in touch if you want a lift or for more information.

If you didn't already no about the undercover investigation at Noah's Ark last summer, if you somehow missed all the press about it have a look here. It makes shocking reading.