Sunday, June 1, 2008 HLS Customer Novartis and Supplier Staples Still on the Hot Seat in New York City Demo #1 - Staples HLS Supplier – 2268 Broadway, NYC New York activists were out again in force to continue sending a message to Huntingdon Life Sciences supplier, Staples Office Supplies. As always this heavily trafficked location presents a unique opportunity to educate numerous pedestrians and drivers alike on heavily traveled Broadway on New York City’s busy Upper West Side. The frustration felt by activists stemmed from the total lack of response and compassion shown by Staples. Employees continue to laugh at posters of mutilated puppies, bunnies and monkeys. Store management refuses to have any dialogue with protesters. Until they get the message and drop HLS, activists have vowed to continue to return to this popular location. Hundreds of color flyers were distributed and many stopped to chat with activists. Eyes were drawn to the graphic banner and the huge picture of the bloodied mutilated beagle puppy killed by Huntingdon Life Sciences. When will the bloodshed end? When will companies like Staples own up to their responsibility? When they supply puppy killers, they enable them to continue the killing. There is no difference between the customers, the suppliers and the actual employees of Huntingdon Life Sciences. Each enables the killing to continue. Staples claims that they will sell to anyone. Our question is this……would they supply the people responsible for the genocide in Darfur? If they were asked to supply the Nazis allowing them to run the death camps, would they do it? Now they are supplying the death camps at Huntingdon Life Sciences. 500 innocent animals die every day. Staples helps them do it. Demo #2 - HLS Customer Novartis - Dorothy Watson – VP & General Counsel Second half of the afternoon was spent in front of the posh hi-rise apartment building of Novartis Vice President and General Counsel, Dorothy Watson. Although the Global Week of Action Against Novartis is ended, WAR activists will continue to visit Novartis executives that live in New York City until they cut their ties with Huntingdon Life Sciences. Just like at Staples earlier, this protest had a strong component of education. The literature table was transported from Staples to Dorothy Watson’s building, which sits close to one of the busiest corners in New York City. Pedestrians thronged the sidewalk and traffic was often bumper to bumper as activists held their banners and signs and lothers freely distributed leaflets and chatted amicably with passersby. Although most of this demonstration was silent, in order to allow activists the opportunity to speak to pedestrians, it was decided to make the last part of the protest loud and spirited. A police car from the 20th precinct, which had been sitting at the curb during the largely silent demonstration, decided to broadcast their radio calls over their loudhailer. The noise was so loud that shoppers passing by covered their ears. The sound drowned out the chanting of the protesters who strained their voices in order to be heard. It became clear after 10 – 15 minutes of this abusive level of noise that the officers were just having a little “fun” at the expense of both the activists and all of the pedestrians in the vicinity. The officers sneered and chuckled from the comfort of their patrol car. After calling into the local precinct to report what was going on, activists were transferred to a Detective who took a detailed report of the complaint. The call was made right by the blaring loudspeakers of the patrol car so that the precinct command could hear what was going on there on the street. Shortly thereafter, the patrol car that had been there for the bulk of the afternoon took off and parked several blocks away, leaving the protesters to finish in peace and without further harassment. Lessons of the day: Police should respect the laws they are sworn to uphold. It sucks to work for a company that does business with Huntingdon Life Sciences. Video Clip: Dorothy Watson - Novartis Executive |
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