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Similarly, on 6 March 2024, AR published an article on its website entitled ‘Grand National Disruption: Social Change Lab Reports Positive Long-Term Societal Change’ 19 . This article assessed the impac t of AR’s action at the 2023 Grand National and claimed that such action heightened support for implementing policy changes to protect animals, including a ban on horse racing. AR’s website further champions other disruptive protests such as shutting ‘ down every McDonald’s distribution centre in the country, scal[ing] government buildings and stopp[ing] the supply of dairy to supermarkets ’ 20 . It appears that disruption is at the core of AR’s i deology as a method to achieve media attention and further its agenda. Similarly, on 21 January 2024, AR created a post on Facebook condemning commercial dog racing in the UK and celebrating the closure of Henlow Stadium in Bedfordshire after ‘ nearly 100 years of cruelty ’ in reference to the dog racing that has take place at the stadium. In that post, AR states that in 2023 it demonstrated at ‘ almost half of the remaining licensed greyhound tracks in the UK ’ 21 . In a statement to the press on 4 April 2024, AR stated that ‘it will not target this year’s race at Aintree … and that it is suspending its campaign of direct action against racing indefinitely ’ , although AR’s spokesperson, Nathan McGovern stated, ‘ Never say never ’. Mr McGovern that that the reason AR did not intend to target Aintree ‘ is that as far as we can see, last year there was a huge public conversation on the back of the Grand National, Epsom et cetera, and it would appear that the public have in large part been convinced that they don’t want r acing to be part of the fabric of British culture going forward. ’ 22 I do not consider that AR’s actions have had such an effect. General admission to Cheltenham Gold Cup day was once again sold out this year, and most areas of the Aintree Racecourse are continuing to sell well across all 3 days of the Grand National. Our digital engagement levels as a sport have never been higher with 30 million views of our Cheltenham online videos and very strong engagement in our online sales pipelines. In short, horse racing remains a highly popular and well-attended sport, the second most attended in Britain, across many demographics and socioeconomic groups. Moreover, as set out in my first statement, it is my understanding that AR is not a corporate entity and that it has no particular hierarchical structure. Rather, AR is a collection of persons who share a common purpose. I know very little of the other
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19 https://www.animalrising.org/post/grand-national-disruption-social-change-lab-reports-positive-long-term-societal- change - pages 499-501 of NT4 20 https://www.animalrising.org/our-history%20-%20pages%20490-491 – pages 490-491 of NT4 21 Page 492 of NT4 22 ‘We won’t be there’: Animal Rising will not protest at Grand National this year | Grand National | The Guardian – page 502-504 of NT4
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