Demo and stall reports –10 & 12 December

Tuesday 10 Dec

Oxford University employees and Oxford Councillors were just some of the people that signed the SPEAK petition when a stall and demo was set up in Cornmarket Street. The streets were packed with Christmas shoppers and tourists who couldn’t fail to see the message that Oxford is a city of animal abuse. Yet again the response from members of the public was very positive with many signatures collected and many leaflets handed out.

Thursday 12 Dec

The SPEAK supporters who regularly gather outside Oxford University’s new animal torture lab on South Parks Road need no reminder of why we are there, but today was made more poignant with the presence of Stan the beagle. Stan was bred to be a laboratory animal. He was destined to spend his short life imprisoned in a cage while the only people he came in contact with would cause him pain and distress, before eventually killing him.

He was saved from a life of torment eleven years ago when Consort beagle breeders were closed down by the animal rights movement. When he first came out of this facility he was very traumatised, and this was even before any experiments were carried out on him. But with care and attention he learnt to trust those he spent his time with and is now a confident and mischievous twelve year old. His brothers and sisters were not so lucky.

All the animals imprisoned inside Oxford University’s labs are individuals, just like Stan, who deserve better than to be mutilated and killed. They are not ‘property’ to be used and abused; they are living, breathing and sentient animals who should be enjoying life, not living in pain and fear.

Join us in the fight for their lives.