Sunday, March 9, 2008

WAR Protests HLS Supplier Staples, Customer Bristol-Myers Squibb and NYSE Euronext Executive

Demo #1: Staples - 1280 Lexington Ave. - HLS Supplier

Staples demos have been very productive for activists as mobs of passing pedestrians want to know exactly what the deal is with Staples' bloody business arrangements.

Staples-specific flyers are passed out by the hundreds (with no exaggeration) and it seems at every demo there is at least one person who tells the protestors that they were headed to Staples but will take their business elsewhere from now on.

Demo #2: Paul Bennett - NYSE Euronext Executive

In 2005 the NYSE flip-flopped with Huntingdon Life Sciences (we'll list you/we won't list you/we'll list you on the arca exchange) and eventually,at year end 2006, listed them under the ticker symbol LSR (Life Science Research). The NYSE has blood on its hands for listing this company that has been caught out in 6 undercover investigations being heinously cruel to the animals in its "care."

Paul Bennett felt the wrath of angry protestors on Sunday as the streets echoed with the chants... "500 animals died today - Paul Bennett is to blame! 500 animals suffered in vain - Paul Bennett is to blame!"

Demo #3: Sandra Holleran, Bristol-Myers Squibb Vice President

A short walk away and activists were at the luxury high-rise of Sandra Holleran, Vice President @ Bristol-Myers Squibb. Literature was distributed to the many passersby attracted by the raised voices of the protesters chanting in unison…..”your money, your fault…..your drugs, your fault”. Followed by: “Vivisection is a trick…..they make money and people get sick”.

As always, this location is teaming with dog walkers and animal lovers. One has only to look up into the windows to see dogs and cats to know that many of the apartments in Holleran’s building are co-habited by well loved and cared for companion animals. The animals by slaughtered at Huntingdon Life Sciences with Bristol-Myers Squibb blood money deserve to be loved and cared too. The question asked on the street is how can a person live with and love a dog or cat and work for a company that pays for the torture and killing of beagle puppies, cats and kittens, infant monkeys, lab rats and mice, etc.?

Demo #4: Staples - 2248 Broadway - HLS Supplier

From Holleran's bloody building activists hopped on a crosstown bus to another busy Staples location to dissuade potential customers and raise awareness about Huntingdon Life Sciences and Staples' connection to the puppykillers.

Once again flyers were handed out by the bushels, groups of pedestrians stopped and gawked at the pictures of mutilated and bloodied animals, demanding to know how Staples was involved in the obvious cruelty.

Once again, the apartment building next to Staples called the police on protestors and ONCE AGAIN the police found that the activists were abiding by all laws and therefore could do nothing. When will people learn that the 1st amendment exists for all, not just for those you agree with?

One particularly arrogant building resident, charged up to the picket line and got up into the face of a middle aged woman activist demanding that she give him her home address. His tone was overtly threatening. After attempting to have a polite conversation with him, it was clear that he was not interested in listening. Up until that time, the protest had been a quiet one where activists were doing a lot of one-on-one education with pedestrians. Perhaps the loud mouthed bully heard the loud chanting that erupted as a result of his attack.

Also of note, a particularly aggressive Staples assistant manager insisted on photographing the demonstration numerous times, asking protestors to POSE (wtf?) with their signs and when one activist had had enough and told the Staples goon to get lost, the activist was threatened physically! Oh Staples, you ARE getting desperate aren't you? CUT YOUR TIES!

Video Clip:

Video Clip: Paul Bennett - NYSE Euronext