At around 20:00, 10 people entered the Mayfair Restaurant. The smartly-dressed individuals occupied tables reserved for customers of the restaurant.
Other luxury restaurants in Southampton, Bristol, Birmingham, Lancaster, and Glasgow have also been the location of “sit-ins” by supporters of Animal Rising this evening.
The group claims that these luxury restaurants epitomise how shattered our connection to other animals and nature is, and are calling for a national conversation on our broken relationship with them
This comes after yesterday’s action when 30 people from the group sat down with the roughly 1,000 calves separated from their mothers and kept in small pens at an intensive dairy facility in Dorset that supplies Marks & Spencers [1].
Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck’s luxury steakhouse has been disrupted by supporters of Animal Rising. The meat-heavy menu includes many of the foods with the largest carbon, and land-use, footprints. Supporters of the group can be seen holding placards with photos taken from yesterday’s action at a dairy farm in Dorset.
Alex Dunnet, a small business owner, amongst those at the restaurant, said:
“Restaurants like Cut illustrate our broken relationship with other animals and the natural world in an unignorable way. The way intelligent, beautiful animals are robbed of their freedom in our food system is utterly heartbreaking and does not reflect the values of a nation of animal lovers. We need to find ways of loving these individuals in a way that doesn’t end up with them on our plates.
We can build a safe and secure food system that works for us all - not just restaurants charging hundreds of pounds for meals. Places like this do not represent who we are as people in this country and it’s time that we all begin this urgent discussion about how we relate to other animals and nature.”
Similar actions have taken place across the UK this evening, as Animal Rising aims to create meaningful dialogue about how we can come together to tackle the climate and nature crises. The prestigious restaurants that have been occupied were chosen as the group believes these to be perfect examples of our disconnect with other animals. Many pride themselves on their menus being centred around animal products.
Today’s actions come weeks after Animal Rising disrupted both the Grand National and Scottish Grand National, whilst more recently also taking action at Doncaster Racecourse and Grange Dairy - a farm that supplies milk to Marks and Spencer’s - in Dorset. The group has declared its intention to disrupt the Epsom Derby Festival next month, and to carry out ‘open rescues’ of animals from farms this summer.
Animal Rising is a social movement to create a new relationship with all beings and give us a chance for a safe ecological future. The group primarily calls for the transition to a safe and secure plant-based food system, alongside a mass rewilding programme.
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