ANIMAL rights campaigners are holding a candle-lit vigil in Bristol city centre tomorrow to mark International Animal Rights Day.

The event, which takes place from 4pm to 7pm near the Hippodrome, will coincide with hundreds of similar events across the world.

Campaigners will be lighting candles to remember the billions of animals who are subjected to cruelty and killing every year.

They want to promote a public debate about the treatment of animals and achieve international recognition of a basic right to be protected from abuse.

December 10 was chosen as it is the anniversary of the United Nations Human Rights Declaration in 1948.

A spokesperson from Bristol Animal Rights Collective said:

"We wouldn't experiment on our companion animals, or keep them in intensive factory farms before killing and eating them, so the basic ideas of animal rights have much greater support than many people realise."

For more, see www.uncaged.co.uk.