AN ANIMAL rights group has staged a demonstration at a Land's End small animals zoo which it said signs the death warrant on some of its animals each winter.

Cornwall Animal Action is against the lease policy in operation at Greeb Farm, where visitors can sometimes feed, meet and touch animals.

The policy means some animals are handed back to farmers, to be later slaughtered.

The activists have gathered more than 600 signatures on a petition urging farm bosses to alter their policy. However, they claim their pleas have so far fallen on deaf ears.

A spokeswoman for the group said: "What they are doing is not responsible. If a farm takes young animals in the spring, in order to keep them young they have to get new ones each year."

Dave Bryans, general manager of the Land's End attraction, said it was standard practice for the farm to hand back animals to farmers during the winter.

He said: "Historically we have reduced the number of animals at Greeb Farm during winter due to lack of demand.

"For example, the last year the farm was open over winter, between November and January 2009, only 1.3 per cent of our 8,745 visitors went to the farm.

"We have just under 100 animals at Greeb Farm, some of which are on loan from farms across Cornwall.

"These animals will either be rehomed, or given back to the farms they came from. Moving animals is not unusual in agriculture.

"Our vision is for the farm to become an educational facility; involving schoolchildren in the farming process.

"We also want to use livestock as a sustainable way of managing the environment, such as grazing the cliffs, which in turn will benefit wildlife, including choughs. Nature and our surrounding environment are at the top of our agenda and we work closely with Cornwall Wildlife Trust and the RSPB to ensure we are doing the best we can for this beautiful part of Cornwall."