On Tuesday, at the Philip Mould Gallery in London, the animal rights activist group Animal Rising redecorated artist Jonathan Yeo’s portrait of 75-year-old King Charles III and posted it on social media to raise awareness about animal cruelty.
The events took a comedic turn when the activists placed the head of Wallace from the cartoon series to the King’s portrait. Ironically, Wallace and Gromit is a show the King himself is fond of. In a quote beside the image, it read, “No Cheese Gromit. Look at all this cruelty on RSPCA farms!” The Animal Rising group posted their stunt in a press release, citing Charles’ recent patronage of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) Assured as their motive.
In the video posted from Animal Rising, you will see that the group came fully prepared to move quickly, as they were equipped with a small camera crew and the two acting participants who switched up the painting.
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Nearby guests were in shock, but a clean-up crew was present as part of the stunt to remove the “stickers” from the painting without causing any damage. This ensured that the act was merely a media strategy to bring attention to animal cruelty on RSPCA Assured farms.
Daniel Juniper of Animal Rising said that “comedic redecoration” was the plan. “With King Charles being such a big fan of Wallace and Gromit, we couldn’t think of a better way to draw his attention to the horrific scenes on RSPCA Assured farms. Even though we hope this is amusing to His Majesty, we also call on him to seriously reconsider if he wants to be associated with the awful suffering across farms being endorsed by the RSPCA.
In previous undercover footage obtained by Animal Rising, extensive health and welfare violations at RSPCA Assured farms were reportedly revealed. In an interview with The Sunday Times, Packham, president of the RSPCA, called on the charity to immediately suspend the scheme.
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“I think the footage is utterly indefensible,” said Packham. “I know you are going to ask me whether these RSPCA Assured schemes are deliberately misleading or defrauding the public because they come with a brand that implies a standard of welfare the public would expect. What we’ve seen in that footage is not a standard of welfare that any member of the public would accept. It’s not acceptable.”
