Huskies, Chihuahuas, boxers and beagles — and even a lumbering Leonberger — joined a “Wooferendum march” in central London on Sunday as their pro-European owners called for a new people’s vote on Brexit.
The gathering commanded politicians, actors and activists, accompanied by hundreds of four-legged friends, all united in their opposition to Britain’s departure from the EU in March next year.
“We will not roll over ... it’s time for the Wooferendum,” said Labour Member of Parliament Stella Creasy, a self-confessed cat — not dog — owner, in a pun-laden speech. “Go fetch people: Get Britain a better future.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
The dog parade — which drew pooches and people from far beyond the capital — took place two weeks before a larger pro-referendum rally planned for Oct. 20.
“I do think we’ve got momentum,” Alastair Campbell, a former Labour government spokesman and people’s vote campaigner, said alongside his five-month-old cavalier King Charles spaniel, Skye.
“In a campaign, use whatever you can that helps,” he said ahead of Sunday’s pet prelude. “Today is showing that this country just isn’t uniting around any vision for Brexit and it’s one way of fighting.”
After Brexit, Britain might have to leave the EU’s pet passport scheme, which allows registered pets to travel to member states freely with their owners. As a result of the change, dog owners are likely to face increased bureaucracy and need more preparation time to take their canine companions to the continent.
Some at the march bemoaned that and other predicted effects — such as difficulty importing pet food and a decrease in the number of vets in Britain.
“It’s just one of the many aspects that people have taken for granted ... and now won’t be there,” marketing consultant Anthony Robinson, 48, of London, said of the much-loved pet travel scheme as he walked with Fred, his two-year-old corgi.
Thanks to a pet passport, two-year-old retriever Summer traveled to Venice and Rome, its owner Diana Muvoli said.
“She wants to continue her travels,” said Muvoli, whose husband, Umberto, is Italian and regularly visits family there.
At least 1,000 people took part, some sporting fancy dress and painted dog faces, after assembling with their furry companions near Trafalgar Square.
“It’s nice to highlight a serious point in such a fun way — everybody loves dogs,” German university lecturer Flora Renz said.
She has lived in Britain for a decade and turned out with Billy, a three-year-old beagle draped in an EU flag.
Others were decked out in signs — “Brexit’s barking mad” — while marchers carried similarly themed placards, including “Brexit, it’s a dog’s dinner.”
The atmosphere was light-hearted, with urinals for the dogs plastered with images of ardent Brexiteers like Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage drawing laughs.
“They’re peeing on command on them,” organizer Daniel Elkan said. “People have got really into it. They might not have marched before, but came today because their dogs have led them.”
Organizers later handed a petition to British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Downing Street office “signed by dogs and owners.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home