On Easter Sunday, activists from Nottingham Animal Rights, Derby Animal Rights and Leicester Animal Rights, converged on Twycross zoo to protest the cruel incarceration of animals from around the world, as part of the Captive Animal Protection Society's zoo awareness weekend

On Easter Sunday, activists from Nottingham Animal Rights, Derby Animal Rights and Leicester Animal Rights, converged on Twycross zoo to protest the cruel incarceration of animals from around the world, as part of the Captive Animal Protection Society's zoo awareness weekend.

Policing was understated and proportionate and none of the zoo staff caused any trouble.

For this highly visual event, one activist dressed up as a Gorilla in chains, and another as an elephant in a cage.

Hundreds of leaflets were given out, and the response from the public was generally positive.

Many people do not realize the animal suffering inherent in Zoos and Aquariums, where animals used to forests, seas and the sky are trapped in cages, concrete enclosures and glass tanks where there routinely go mad from boredom, frustration and the absence of the natural environment they have evolved to depend on.

Zoos may claim to contribute to conservation, but in reality only a small percentage of Zoo animals are endangered and only an even smaller percentage of those are successfully released back into the wild. Meanwhile they divert funds away from where the real effort is needed - habitat conservation.

Don't be fooled by the marketing, the purpose of Zoos is to make money for shareholders and they do so at the animal's expense.

For more information on Zoos and CAPS' valuable work, see http://www.captiveanimals.org/