Twelve campaigners from the animal and climate justice movement Animal Rebellion were arrested on Thursday during Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in London.
The animal justice protestors ran from behind barriers in front of the marching band on The Mall, the grand boulevard that leads to Buckingham Palace. Television footage showed they laid down in front of the marching band.
“The Crown owns roughly 6.6 billion acres of land throughout the world, which is about one-sixth of the land on the entire planet,” Animal Rebellion said on Facebook. “Animal Rebels are shining the spotlight on the Crown’s continued inaction on the climate crisis.”
“As the largest landowner in the UK, the Crown needs to support rapid and immediate transition of farmland for rewilding, and we will not stop taking action until they do,” the organization added.
Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrates the Queen’s 70 years on the throne with a four-day holiday weekend with different activities all over the country.
The festivities began Thursday with the Queen’s birthday parade, also known as Trooping the Colour, with more than 1500 soldiers and 240 horses.
Animal Rebellion is a sister organization of Extinction Rebellion, a global environmental movement that uses non-violent action and civil disobedience to force governments to act justly on the climate emergency.
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