By GB News (World News) | Created at 2025-04-04 15:36:40 | Updated at 2025-04-05 10:31:09
19 hours ago
Reform UK has branded animal rights group Peta "anti-British" after it scolded Nigel Farage for an April Fools' Day stunt in which he was given a bulldog "tattoo".
The Reform boss had sat down to receive a temporary branding at Pennyroyal Tattoo Studio in St Neots as he launched his party's local election campaign for Cambridgeshire - prompting a stern letter from Peta.
The group's founder Ingrid Newkirk has written to Farage warning that bulldogs suffer from a range of breathing difficulties - and has told the Brexit heavyweight to steer clear of using the British icon animal in his campaigns in the future.
"You know better than most that the public is influenced by what it sees depicted in popular culture, so I have an extraordinary ask," Newkirk wrote.
Farage had sat down to receive a temporary branding at Pennyroyal Tattoo Studio in St Neots as he launched his party's local election campaign for Cambridgeshire
PA
'Who do Peta think they are to dictate what 'Britishness' is? A British bulldog tattoo is a tribute to the animal, not an insult,' Lee Anderson fumed
PA
PICTURED: Nigel Farage's temporary bulldog tattoo
PA
"Such 'Breathing Impaired Breeds' cannot draw enough air into their narrowed nostrils and often must breathe through their mouth, which causes them to snort, snore, and gasp.
"This is not simply uncomfortable - one veterinary surgeon likened it to 'trying to breathe through a really narrow straw' - it is sometimes fatal, resulting in heart failure, suffocation or heat stroke.
"British bulldogs' features also make them susceptible to eye and skin complaints and jaw deformities.
"Unsurprisingly, the Royal Veterinary College warns that British bulldogs are twice as likely to have health problems as other breeds and recommends that 'urgent action' be taken regarding their health."
