6.
The Second Witness Statement of Nevin Truesdale provided further evidence ahead of
the Disposal Hearing. The Court is referred to paragraphs 11 to 23 of this statement
which provides details of the actions and statements of the protest group, Animal Rising ( “AR” ). 2
7.
Having monitored AR’s website, https://www.animalrising.org/, there have recently been
a number of changes in its content, which impact on the evidence provided in the
Second Witness Statement of Nevin Truesdale.
8.
The ‘About Us’ section of AR’s website has been altered and the references to disrupting
horse racing events detailed in paragraph 22 of the Second Witness Statement of Nevin Truesdale 3 have been removed. 4
9.
The ‘How we achieve change’ section of AR’s website, which included mass trespass
onto animal racing events detailed further in paragraph 22 of the Second Witness Statement of Nevin Truesdale 5 has been removed.
Animal Rising – Recent Action
10.
However, it is clear that those behind AR have not changed their objective of bringing
about “the death of the racing industry”. On 5 April 2024, AR posted a petition to cancel
the Grand National on its Facebook page, stating that ‘we can speed up the death of the racing industry if we keep shouting loudly and refuse to be silenced’. 6
11.
On 13 April 2024, ahead of the Grand National, a statement from Mr Kidby was posted
on AR’s website. Mr Kidby stated that AR’s actions in disrupting the Grand National in
2023 ‘shone a spotlight on the deaths’ of the horses and that AR ‘don’t believe disruption is needed to draw attention to this again’ . 7
12.
On the same date, AR posted another statement on its website criticising the horse
racing industry which claims ‘to have the horses’ best interests at heart while literally
racing them to death’. Further, that ‘people are becoming more aware of the cruelty of
horse racing, and we are relying on public pressure to help us take this ‘sport’ off our screens and consign it to the history books .’ 8
2 Pages 5 to 7 of JDR2 3 Page 7 of JDR2 4 Pages 515 to 517 of JDR2 5 Page 7 of JDR2 6 Pages 518 to 519 of JDR2 7 Pages 520 to 522 of JDR2 8 Pages 523 to 525 of JDR2
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