Taylor Swift has bowed to pressure from Australian animal rights activists and cancelled her Nov. 5 performance at the Melbourne Cup horse race. The Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses, which has called for a boycott of the event under the #NupToTheCup hashtag, used the well known singer’s love of cats to convince her not to headline the event, citing a number of horse deaths tied to the race. “Taylor Swift has put money before compassion by agreeing to perform at the 2019 Melbourne Cup. An event where at least 6 horses have been KILLED over the past 6 years,” the group wrote in a Facebook post. “If Taylor Swift cares at all about other animals the way she appears to care about cats, she will cancel her show and make a strong statement that animal abuse is unacceptable.” Swift cited a change to her Asian tour schedule as the official reason for skipping the show.