Cloned Camerons invade Westminster

London was confronted with the sight of 40 David Cameron clones as leading farm animal welfare organisation Compassion in World Farming called upon the Prime Minister to ban the cloning of animals for food.

Demonstrators wearing suits and David Cameron masks handed in a letter at No.10 Downing Street and gathered at Westminster landmarks. Over 7000 signatures from the public have been collected in just 2 days and everyone can still sign online at ciwf.org/cloning.

“Most people are rightly horrified at the recent admission by food standard regulators that cloned meat and milk has already entered the UK food chain,” Compassion Chief Executive Philip Lymbery told the assembled Camerons.

He continued, “We are calling on the UK government to take an unequivocal lead in banning the use of cloned meat and milk from the food chain.”

Cloning animals for food is widely recognized as bringing unacceptable levels of suffering to farm animals. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) sees genetic selection for high yields as “the major factor causing poor welfare” in dairy cows.

 “In other words,” said Philip Lymbery, “the animals are being pushed to their physical limits. They are genetically selected to suffer. British consumers are calling on you, Prime Minister, to end this unnecessary and unacceptable factory farm cruelty.”

-ENDS-

Notes to Editors
Photographs of the demo available: www.ciwf.org/attackoftheclones

Photos are being uploaded as they happen – please keep checking back to the website.

For further information or to arrange interviews contact on Caroline Burkie +44 (0)1483 521952 or +44 (0)7771 926005 (out of office hours) or email caroline.burkie@ciwf.org

Compassion’s campaign ‘Cloning = Cruelty’ (ciwf.org/cloning) highlights the intrinsic animal welfare issues of selective breeding in animals for food – i.e. meat and dairy.  It gives the concerned consumer a place to register their opposition to the cruel practices involved in cloning practices. 

Supporters can send an e letter to David Cameron agreeing that meat and dairy from cloned offspring should not enter our food chain.

Read more: 
Download our free factsheets and reports on genetic engineering and cloning http://www.ciwf.org.uk/includes/documents/cm_docs/2010/c/cloning_briefing_august_2010.pdf

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