More Than 100 Arrested as Animal Activists Protest Grand National Horserace

Police in Liverpool, England, said they made 118 arrests as animal-rights activists protested the Grand National Festival, a world-famous horse racing event, at Aintree racecourse on Saturday, April 15.

Merseyside Police said “a large number of protesters attempted to gain entry” to the racecourse and that the “majority were prevented from breaching the boundary fencing.”

This demonstration was led by Animal Rising, an animal-rights group affiliated with Extinction Rebellion, an organization which has led numerous climate-change protests in the UK and other countries.

This footage from Animal Rising shows police arresting a member, Claudia Penna Rojas, according to BBC News. Further images released by the group show protesters scaling fences at the site.

Activists also got onto the racing track a few minutes before the race was scheduled to start, according to Animal Rising.

The group was calling for the Grand National to be shut down due to the high risk to horses. “In the UK alone, 49 horses have died or been killed so far this year due to horse-racing: this is unacceptable,” they said.

" Since 2000, 55 horses have died at the Aintree racecourse, including 15 from the Grand National itself," Animal Rising in an online petition addressed to the British government. Credit: Animal Rising via Storyful

Video transcript

- Please, mind her knees.

- Woo!

[APPLAUSE]

- Love you.

- Woo!

- Please, mind her knees.

- Woo!

[APPLAUSE]

- Love you.

- Let's go!

- Woo!