Barking Against Brexit – Protesting on Four Legs
- slingshotmagazine
- Feb 4, 2019
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 11, 2019
by Torbjørn Jørstad
“Let’s make the biggest bark in history,” reads the mission statement.
Of all the grassroots movements spawned in the wake of the 2016 Brexit referendum, the Wooferendum campaign stands easily among the cutest additions. The concept? Man’s best friend barking out against Britain leaving the European Union, which is formally due to happen at the end of this month.
The campaign was launched by freelance journalist Daniel Elkan, ironically not a dog owner himself. He started it all as a “secret protest”, taking photographs of dogs with signs protesting Brexit.
“The Wooferendum campaign was a way to give more people - and dogs - a voice on a tough topic: Brexit,” he says.
“Sometimes campaigns are like fireworks, you build up the excitement and expectation, light the firework, it goes up and creates a great explosion,” continues Elkan, who hopes the campaign helped inspire people who might not otherwise have spoken out publicly or marched against Brexit.
The widely covered Wooferendum march in Central London on October 7th last year was attended by hundreds of dogs and their owners. The ‘biggest pawlitical march in history’ spawned pictures of hilariously cute four-legged protesters and featured ‘pee stations’ with pictures of Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson, as well as slogans such as “Brexit’s barking mad!” and “Brexit is not a walk in the park”.
With the success of the first march fresh in mind, Elkan says that the Wooferendum campaign isn’t laid to rest just yet, promising more disgruntled barks to come.
“Article 50 may be extended, a People’s Vote is becoming more likely, and there’s a good chance the dogs will be coming out again - en masse - to campaign for us to stay in the EU,” he adds.
Whether loud barks against Brexit will have made a change, remains to be seen.
CHECK OUT our gallery for more photos from Wooferendum.
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