Sunday 25th January saw the national Animal Rights Coaliton meeting (ARC) take place at the Beesley Green Community Centre near Manchester. Attendees came from as far afield as Birmingham, Nottingham, North Wales, Leeds, Lancashire, London, Swansea, Coventry and of course Manchester. There was also a representative of the Mexican Animal Rights movement who attended to see how the process of Animal Rights activism in the UK was organised.

Notable absentees it would seem, refreshingly, were PC Plum and his camera wielding hordes, due to the heightened threat of terrorist activity in the town of Balamory perhaps?

Kicking at 10am with a chance to form and strengthen bonds between AR activists from across the country, the event drew in excess of 50 people, both human and canine. Far from presenting an image of a movement in fear, licking it's wounds following recent high profile trials, including the sentencing of a number of SHAC activists for conspiracy to blackmail and the start of Mel Broughton's retrial, the mood was on the whole upbeat, positive and imaginative.