AN ANIMAL rights activist and campaigner against grouse shooting on Ilkley Moor was arrested after invading the show ring at world-famous dog show Crufts, just as the Best in Show winner was announced.

Leeds law student, Luke Steele, 25, rushed onto the main floor at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham holding a placard declaring “Mutts Against Crufts”, as winning dog handler Rebecca Cross walked up to the podium to pick up the trophy with champion Scottish Terrier, Knopa.

He was swiftly tackled by security staff and removed from the ring.

The high-profile protest came just days after Mr Steele was fined by magistrates in Bradford for disrupting grouse shooting on Bingley and Morton Moor.

His protest on Sunday was over fears that many pedigree dogs are bred to have unnatural characteristics which affect their health and welfare.

He was arrested and later released without charge, according to spokesman for Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).

Mr Steele, of Woodside View, Burley, Leeds, is spokesman for BBIM (Ban Bloodsports on Ilkley Moor), a coalition of anti-bloodsports groups, which has organised protests on and around the Bradford Council-owned Ilkley Moor.

He was fined by Bradford and Keighley Magistrates last month after pleaded guilty to a charge of obstructing people engaged in a lawful activity by trespassing on land used by the Bingley Moor Partnership grouse shoot.

The law said in a statement after the incident at Crufts: “Crufts’ shameless promotion of ‘breedism’ is the dog or cat equivalent of racism, and pedigrees suffer from abnormally high rates of disease as a result of being bred for unnatural physical traits.”

Peta claims many bulldogs, pugs, Pekingese and other brachycephalic or “flat-faced” dogs cannot breathe well because of their unnaturally shortened airways, and other breeds are hit by genetic weaknesses.

The BBC dropped its coverage of the top Kennel Club dog show in 2009 amid a disagreement about the inclusion of several “disputed” breeds in the show.

This followed a BBC investigation which found some dog breeds on show suffer from genetic diseases and defects as a result of years of inbreeding.

The protest did not disrupt the show.

However, this year’s Crufts show was beset by controversy after accusations that an award-winning Irish Setter dog was poisoned at the event, and two more dogs took ill, prompting a police investigation.