An ‘exploitive’ petting zoo at New Watford Market has been cancelled after a rally by animal rights campaigners.

The market was due to hold a petting zoo today at which children could meet and have their photo taken with animals including rabbits, chickens and ducks.

It sparked outrage from the Hertfordshire Animal Rights group which urged supporters to “reflect our concerns to the management of the market” to prevent the ‘exploitive’ event from happening.

The market announced yesterday that it had cancelled the event due to public safety concerns as a result of the campaign.

In a statement, the market added: “Our petting zoo providers were of the highest quality, the animals were all specifically chosen for their calm temperament and all handling of any animals by children would have been closely supervised by an experienced professional.

“Every effort had been made for this event to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the animals. Due to concerns about disruption of the event we have been forced to cancel it.”

The petting zoo has been replaced by arts and crafts, and an Easter egg hunt. The revamped event is now underway.

The Hertfordshire Animal Rights group praised the market for making the U-turn.

It said: “Animals are often caused stress and suffering by being transported around between unusual environments, overly handled by those without experience and placed on display in noisy shopping areas.

“We are pleased New Watford Market has taken welfare concerns seriously by cancelling the petting zoo and thank them for their response.

“The event has been replaced by a more appropriate event, a crafts and an Easter egg hunt which does not involve live animals.

“There is nothing educational about petting zoos, teaching children that it's acceptable to keep animals confined in small, cramped spaces then to be exploited for profit by being poked and prodded by humans is not educational or beneficial to the animals.”

What do you think? Should the petting zoo event taken place?