DW: Dang, and I was gonna put $100 on Hell's Snail.
The topic you weren’t expecting to read about today is “snail pain.” A council in Nottingham, England, has cancelled a snail racing event after animal rights activists flooded social media with complaints over potential harm to the participants. The event had been planned as part of the city's Great Big Green Week at the Central Library and was promoted as a "world first" electronic snail racing board. Activists objected on multiple fronts, with one warning of the pain snails endure when "ripped off the floor from their trail." Others raised concerns about removing snails from familiar habitats, disrupting local ecosystems, and the potential for wild snails to harbor parasites that could harm children.
The Nottingham Animal Coalition weighed in on the race as well, arguing that scientific evidence supports snails having the capacity to experience pain. Nottingham Council cancelled the event and issued an apology with ironic speed, and the reaction online was divided between people who found the outcry reasonable and those who called it a sign of where animal rights activism has arrived.
Source: Daily Mail