Sunday, September 21, 2008

WAR Wages Relentless Campaign Against HLS Customer Novartis

Demo #1: John Minardo - Novartis General Counsel

A lovely Sunday afternoon found activists out in force at the recently discovered home address of John Minardo, General Counsel for Huntingdon Life Sciences customer, Novartis. Minardo’s building which sits on the very busy corner of Lexington Avenue and East 24th Street in New York City fashionable Gramercy Park neighborhood.

The large banner depicted the bloody mutilated remains of a young beagle puppy coupled with posters showing a large variety of animals being tortured at Huntingdon Life Sciences created quite the stir in Gramercy Park. A dozen activists raised their voices hoping to be heard by Minardo from his 8th floor balcony. Hundreds of flyers with John’s contact information were distributed to passersby who stopped to chat with activists. “500 animals died today, John Minardo is to blame”…….”500 animals murdered today, Novartis is to blame”.

As this was the first protest at this location activists kept it relatively brief. If forced to return,protests will become larger, longer and louder. “Cut your ties to HLS, Novartis!”

Demo #2: Wayne Merkleson - Novartis General Counsel

The next location of the afternoon was Novartis executive Wayne Merkleson. Activists have been to this location on numerous occasions in the past couple of years and it is always exciting. There must be something in the air filtration or water of this location as activists are always treated to bizarre behavior of one kind or another.

Once again the banner was unfurled and posters were held high while voices gave vent to anger and rage. “Your Greed, Your Fault……Your contracts, Your fault…….Your Drugs, Your Fault” chanted the protesters, as fingers pointed up to apartment 9-H. Numerous flyers were distributed and one of Wayne’s neighbors came down to talk to the protesters. During the amicable conversation a water balloon was pitched from the third floor balcony toward protesters. Oops, it came closest to hitting Wayne’s neighbor.

As is always the case at this location, the local police precinct was called reporting a “disorderly protest in progress”. Police arrived in time to witness the burst water balloon on the sidewalk in close proximity to where activists were standing. Both police officers were horrified to learn of the activities at Huntingdon Life Sciences that were under protest. They acknowledged that the demonstration was peaceful and legal and allowed it to continue unhampered.

WAR activists have expressed frustration at their inability to get through to Novartis; but they have vowed to continue campaigning to influence Novartis until they cut their bloody ties to the butchers at Huntingdon Life Sciences. The thought of 500 animals being killed every day goes a long way toward providing motivation to continue. “Cut your ties Novartis or we’ll be back.”