31 protesters held over invading Epsom Derby

EPSOM, United Kingdom

British police guarding the Epsom Derby have made multiple arrests including of an activist from the rights group Animal Rising who stormed the track during the blue-riband horse race.

The man was bundled away by police and stewards before the 14 horses reached that point of the track, to cheers from massed spectators.

One woman was arrested as she tried to clamber over the fence, as Animal Rising slammed race organisers for a “sickening display of profit (over) care for animals.”

Surrey Police said they had arrested 31 protesters, including 19 activists from the animal rights group in a pre-emptive operation around the Epsom racecourse, near London.

All were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit public nuisance, the police force said.

Animal Rising activists stormed the Grand National race at Aintree near Liverpool in April, and last week said they had “rescued” three lambs from slaughter on a farm on King Charles III’s Sandringham estate.

Three horses were destroyed after getting injured during the Grand National steeplechase festival -- proof, the group says, that racing is fatally dangerous.

In 1913, the Epsom Derby was the scene of one of the most famous political protests in British history.

Suffragette Emily Davison, campaigning for women’s right to vote, was trampled to death when she ran in front of King George V’s horse. A plaque today marks the tragedy at Epsom’s Tattenham Corner.

The suffragettes were seen by authorities at the time as dangerous radicals, as groups such as Animal Rising and Just Stop Oil are seen by the government today.

Britain’s Conservative government has responded to today’s wave of direct action groups with strict new legislation.

But defying the crackdown, Just Stop Oil continued this week to stage daily go-slow marches along major London roads as it presses for an end to all fossil fuel development.