THREE animal rights activists were arrested this morning after scaling the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs  (Defra) offices in London. 

The group, who are members of the Animal Justice Project, said the action was taken to highlight the “catastrophic” impact of intensive poultry farming on the spread of bird flu. 

In the early hours of this morning, the three scaled the building, which also houses the Home Office, on Marsham Street, central London, before unfurling a banner reading: “Bird Flu: Our next pandemic, end animal farming.”