Taylor Swift, the pop star phenom, was scheduled to perform two tracks from her new album Lover at this year’s Melbourne Cup – until PETA and the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses entered the picture. The Melbourne Cup is Australia’s largest annual Thoroughbred horse race.
Launching a petition to lobby the singer to withdraw from the scheduled performance with their “#NupToTheCup” campaign, the animal rights groups managed to succeed in scuttling the only scheduled appearance in Australia during Swift’s promotional tour, said an article in The Guardian.
Swift was scheduled to perform at the Victoria Racing Club on Nov. 5. The booking agency claims that the cancellation is due to scheduling issues with the singer’s world tour. However, CNN reports the cancellation was made after the animal rights groups campaigned against Swift’s scheduled appearance.
“Taylor Swift dumped the Melbourne Cup, and PETA couldn’t be happier,” PETA Press Outreach Manager Moira Colley said in a statement to Rolling Stone. “The event is riddled with horse breakdowns and death and is linked to the bloody horse-slaughter industry, which PETA most recently exposed in South Korea. None of this cruelty is consistent with the kind person we know Taylor to be.”
