Saturday, March 4, 2006

NYC No Safe Haven for Animal Exploiters

The first stop was the home of Robert Schaffer of the Vertical Group. We were, once again, able to spend time with Robert's neighbors to educate them about how people that support animal abusers are usually not very trustworthy. Seems that Robert has been telling his neighbors that his company, The Vertical Group, doesn't make a market for LSRI (aka Huntingdon Life Sciences). Funny, last time we chatted with Robert he admitted that Vertical was trying to sell the stock short. Which is it Rob? Are you not making a market or selling it short? A police squad car was dispatched to the demo and police officers explained to whoever called them about our right to be there as long so long as we did not block the sidewalk.

Brian Badertscher, of Bank of America, is so close to Schaffer that we couldn't resist stopping by his place next. Police arrived rather quickly, along with an ordinary yellow cab that we found out wasn't quite so ordinary. Apparently, it was an undercover police car. Several police officers milled about making sure that we did not block the sidewalk. It was good to have them there since in the past full beverage containers had been chucked at us from the windows of Brian's building.

A good deal of literature was distributed and a Franciscan Brother from nearby St. Anthony's came by to chat with us about our purpose. He was horrified to learn that someone living so close to his church was with a company that would invest in the kind of cruelty that goes on at HLS. The good brother told us that St. Francis of Assisi had a special place in his heart for animals and he took a stack of flyers from us. As we wrapped up the demo, we saw him distributing the flyers to his neighbors all along Brian's street.

We then traveled down to lower Manhattan where we visited the home of Christopher Pesce, also of the Bank of America. Christopher wasn't home but some of his neighbors were and they were quick to come downstairs to see what the ruckus was. We explained why we were there and distributed educational materials about the horrific cruelty at HLS. Shocking graphic posters and banners caught everyone's attention. Christopher's neighbors promised to speak with him to make sure he knew that he missed our visit.

Although we had dropped by David Spencer's luxury Tribeca hi-rise building on two previous occasions, to deliver educational materials about HLS, our patience and perseverance were rewarded this afternoon. David Spencer, a V.P. with Bank of America came down to the lobby to discuss our reason for being there. Spencer visited with activists who showed him pictures of the atrocities that take place at HLS and told him about the 5 undercover investigations into the cruelty.

Much to our chagrin, David Spencer made it abundantly clear that he was was not bothered by what he learned and that he is totally in favor of vivisection. He added that he found animal advocates to be a pain and a bother. He seemed to feel that the cruelty at HLS was none of his concern. Spencer was callous and uncaring, while activists stood in gale force winds, struggling to hold banners and signs depicting the bloody mutilated remains of animals killed at HLS.

Thank goodness that Spencer's neighbors are not as cold and uncaring as he is. Many of them came over to ask for literature and they assured us that we had their support and that they would call Bank of America to advocate for the poor suffering animals imprisoned at HLS. Hopefully someday self absorbed cold-hearted Spencer will find out the value of caring about something other than himself…..although frankly, we doubt it.

No doubt David Spencer is going to need a lot more educational visits from us. We'll be back, no doubt about that!