An American vegan activist has been arrested in Moscow’s Red Square after taking her calf, named Doctor, for a stroll around the famous Russian landmark.
Alicia Day, who once kept a pig named Jixy Pixy in a tiny flat in Britain, was detained by Russian police for “violating established procedure for holding a meeting, rally, demonstration, demonstration or picket line”.
The 34-year-old American, who also had run-ins with the law in Poland in the past, was fined 20,000 rubles or $285 for defiing police in the Red Square incident.
According to the file, she had shouted “animals are not food” in Red Square, where public gatherings are banned. Day is also said to have attempted to resist arrest.
Day said: “I removed the animal immediately [from Red Square]. did everything [the police] said. That’s why we’re sitting here [in detention]’
Alicia Day (right) takes her pig, Jixy Pixy, for a walk. Day’s landlady in Ealing, west London, stopped Per from keeping Jixy Pixy in her flat. Left image: The calf on the back of a van after the incident
“I bought the veal so it wouldn’t be eaten. I decided to take him to such a beautiful place and show him the country,” she said, according to the Russian news agency Tass.
Tass reported that Day had been in Russia since January 21 working for an animal welfare organization and entered the country on a tourist visa.
The agency released a photo of her appearance in court and said she had pleaded guilty.
She cared for seven piglets and three calves at an animal shelter, including the one she was caged with.
Laws in Russia against demonstrations have become stricter since the start of the war in Ukraine, although Tass said she was making no political statement with her actions.
A picture from East2West News showed the animal in the back of a van after the incident.
Day was in Ukraine when the war started and then moved to Poland before relocating to Russia.
She said she bought the calf online when she arrived in Russia.
Footage shows her explaining the decision while in custody
Alicia Day, 34, was arrested in Moscow’s Red Square after taking her calf, named Doctor, for a stroll around the famous Russian landmark
Day has problems with laws that could be used against anti-Putin demonstrations.
Speaking in Russian, the New Jersey-born American activist told TV station Zvezda, owned by Vladimir Putin’s Defense Ministry, that she wanted to show her calf, named Doctor, Red Square.
As soon as the police ordered her to get the animal off the sacred cobblestones, she obeyed, she said.
In the video, she said: “I removed the animal immediately [from Red Square]
‘Everything done [the police] said.
“That’s why we’re sitting here [in detention].’
When asked how she got the calf to Red Square, she said: “By car. I have a driver from Kirov. I paid him to come here.
“I wanted to show off [the calf] a beautiful place in our beautiful country.’
Alicia Day – who has also faced the law in Poland in the past – was fined 20,000 rubles, or £230, or $285, for “resisting police” in the Red Square incident
A video still shows Alicia Day walking her pig
While living in the UK, Days stopped landlords in Ealing, west London, from keeping Jixy Pixy in her flat.
She paid £30 to save the eight-week-old animal after seeing it being advertised online by a farm that wanted to sell it to another farm, where it would later have been slaughtered.
Day offered to take the pig instead, then spent £400 on a cab to take Jixy Pixy to London from Exeter, Devon.
However, her landlord found out about the pig and had to hand it over to the RSPCA.
Day has been criticized by animal rights activists for keeping it in her tiny apartment, but she claimed the animal is living the good life because she bathed it and brought it to Wagamamas.
In Poland, she said she was ashamed that another pig named Pupcia was forbidden to live with her.
She said in May 2021: “I went through a very extensive documentation process to get registered as a pet owner here in Poland.
“I started work on day one — pretty much the day after I landed in this country.”
Neighbors had complained that the animal was uprooting two lawns in the community gardens.
In interviews, Day said she spent thousands of pounds on pigs, which she called her “kids”.
She takes them on taxi rides and restaurant visits.
In Ukraine, she kept a pig and a calf in her rented apartment in Dnipro.