Sunday, April 2, 2006
WAR Refocuses on HLS Financial Supporters

Sunday, April 2nd, WAR continued a weekend of educational outreach by setting up two exhibit tables in NYC’s shopping mecca in fashionable Soho. On hand were pictures, pamphlets and flyers about vivisection, alternatives to animal testing and specific literature about both Huntingdon Life Sciences and the SPEAK campaign to stop the building of a new animal testing lab at Oxford University.

As the sun set, activists headed over to the nearby Greenwich Village home of Vertical Group’s Rob Schaeffer. The Vertical Group continues to make a market for LSRI (stock market symbol for Huntingdon Life Sciences), even though they continue to deny any relationship or knowledge of LSRI.

Activists unfurled a large banner and called out in their loudest voices to get the attention of Rob and his neighbors. The loud chanting drew neighbors, who were offered literature about the killing of 500 innocent animals every day by the animal abusers at Huntingdon Life Sciences. A staffer from the IFC Theater, across the street from Rob’s apartment, came out and asked for a quantity of flyers for distribution in the theater. We were happy to oblige.

Our next stop was the home of Brian Badertscher. We rang the doorbell and Brian answered but declined our invitation to come downstairs to talk to us about our concerns for the animals being brutalized daily at Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). Brian is an executive with Bank of America, whose subsidiary company Columbia Management owns a sizable amount of LSRI stock.

The protest had just begun when one of Brian’s neighbors came tearing out of the building brandishing a baseball bat in a threatening manner. He was shaking with anger and was clearly out of control. His first move was to hit an activist from behind (he was leading the chants and his back was turned, so he didn’t even realize what was happening behind him). He then charged the two activists holding the banner, waving the baseball bat and screaming in their faces to stop the protest. In the face of his uncontrolled anger and his sizeable baseball bat, activists opted to stand firm, ignore him and continue the protest.

Another neighbor came down to tell us that we were frightening his children. Surprising, as there were only 5 of us chanting. We suggested that he explain to his children that we were participating in democracy and that our peaceful legal demonstration was a protected constitutional right. This man came from the same apartment that had previously thrown half-gallons of milk and other open drink containers down on protesters. He told us that Brian wasn’t home which completely shot his credibility as we had just spoken to Brian on the building intercom. Many other neighbors approached and thanked us for being there and for speaking up for the poor animals waiting to die at HLS.

NYPD arrived and found the one neighbor still wielding his bat at the small group of protesters. Both neighbors made a beeline to the police to whine about the protest. Police tried to break up the demo, which continued unabated, while the police took the report about the demonstrator that had been assaulted with the bat. After viewing the videotape of the altercation, police arrested the neighbor and he was led away in handcuffs. Hopefully a message was also sent to the other neighbor who likes to hurl milk jugs and other liquids from his window.

Despite the bad attitude and manners of the people who live in Brian’s building, most of the neighborhood has expressed support for our campaign and for our right to speak out for the animals who have no voice and who suffer and die alone, in cold steel cages and concrete pens, at Huntingdon Life Sciences.