Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle unveiled his plans for the Olympic Opening Ceremony this week. The 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium in Stratford, London, will be transformed into a representation of the English countryside, or in Danny Boyle’s words, “our green and pleasant land”. As well as a mock-up of Glastonbury Tor and a mosh pit from the famous music festival, the plans include the use of over 100 animals – goats, cows, sheepdogs geese, chickens, ducks, horses and sheep.
Organisers of the ceremony, entitled “Isles Of Wonder”, claim it will portray “a traditional and idyllic view of the British countryside”. Animal rights groups argue that the spectacle will be far from wonderful for the animals. “Quite apart from the serious welfare concerns of using farmed animals as little more than living props, it is also perpetuating a myth of a British countryside that doesn’t exist anymore outside the minds of the 2012 Olympic Committee and advertising agencies,” said Justin Kerswell, of Viva!” “The stark reality is that most animals raised for meat and dairy in Britain are increasingly intensively farmed. Almost all broiler chickens, ducks and most pigs are kept indoors in factory farms in their thousands. Danny Boyle’s vision of the British countryside is about as believable as the set of Teletubbies.”
To add your voice to the many opposing the use of animals in the Olympic Opening ceremony, contact London 2012 or sign the Captive Animals Protection Society petition.