This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Animal rights organisations and activists have accused the Latitude festival organisers of cruelty for dyeing a flock of sheep pink as part of a marketing campaign.

A promotional tweet posted on the opening day of the Suffolk event showed fuchsia-dyed sheep running across the festival grounds. Social media users quickly criticised the organisers for dyeing the sheep and demanded an explanation.

Latitude defended the stunt, and tweeted that the animals had been “dip-dyed using natural, water-based dye which they are used to as part of their normal farm life for insecticides and parasites like itch-mite, blow-flies, ticks and lice”.

Latitude Festival (@LatitudeFest) The sheep have arrived! 💖🐑 pic.twitter.com/wY1oIuX3nB

But the animal rights organisation Peta UK condemned Latitude’s actions as a “thoughtless, attention-grabbing stunt”.

“In 2019, only ignorant or cruel people still use animals as living toys, props and photo ops,” it said on Twitter. “We’ve learned enough about animals to know to respect and admire them for their ability to live in a world we’re fast destroying.”

Peta said the dip-dyeing of the sheep “involves being completely submerged in liquid, their heads likely held down with a crook. And the abuse didn’t stop there. These gentle prey animals are easily stressed and would have been terrified of the loud music and rowdy, drunk festivalgoers.”

The animal welfare charity RSPCA also expressed criticism, saying it was “very sad” to see sheep being treated in this way.

A petition has been set up calling on Latitude to stop using the sheep as “party props” and to remove the animals from the festival grounds.

RSPCA (England & Wales) (@RSPCA_official) This is very sad to see 😢 We're a charity with no more powers than any member of public, and unfortunately this is not illegal. We want all animals treated with kindness and respect and would discourage people from painting animals for novelty purposes.

Members of the public announced a boycott of Latitude and called on others to follow suit.

East Suffolk council said on behalf of Latitude that it had “no concerns about the sheep this year or in the 14 years that this activity has taken place”.

“We are entirely happy that the water-based dye is completely safe and that the festival organisers have taken all appropriate steps to ensure the animals are content, safe and well-looked after,” the council added.

“As part of our wide-ranging licensing and environmental health responsibilities, the council takes the welfare of all animals very seriously and if we had encountered any issues or felt that the sheep were suffering distress of any kind we would not permit such an activity.”

The festival in Henham Park, which this year featured headline sets from Lana Del Rey and Stereophonics, is billed as a family festival with a broad cultural programme alongside activities such as lake swimming and wellness treatments.

Latitude was named best major festival in 2017 and best family festival in 2018 at the UK Festival awards.

• This article was amended on 23 July 2019. An earlier version incorrectly said Snow Patrol played a headline set at Latitude; the band were due to perform but were replaced by Stereophonics.