Demo reports - Wednesday 1st - Thursday 2nd July 2009

Wednesday 1st and Thursday 2nd June were Open Days at Oxford University, when prospective students were invited to take a look around the departments and colleges of the university. However, you can be sure that one place that was not open for the students to look around were the labs where thousands of animals are being mutilated and abused on a daily basis.

On Wednesday, campaigners met at the edge of the exclusion zone that surrounds the animal torture lab on South Parks Road in order to make sure that those visiting Oxford were made fully aware of the plight of the university's 16, 000 animal victims incarcerated within the new building and of the horrific fate they are destined to suffer at the hands of the university’s vivisectors. The street was incredibly busy, with many students and their families passing by, and a vast number of leaflets were handed out with many of the recipients being filled with horror on reading and hearing the awful truth about the suffering and death of Felix and the other innocent, non-consenting, sentient beings incarcerated and tortured by the institution that they were visiting.

Activists returned to South Parks Road on Thursday for the weekly site demo. With the bottom part of the road, including the 'designated protest area' opposite the lab, being shut to both road traffic and pedestrians, due to building work taking place, the protesters decided to hold the main part of the demo in the same place as the previous day, opposite the chemistry lab. Determined, however, that there should be a presence within the exclusion zone at the only time during the week allowed by the ridiculous restrictions made in the High Court injunction, as there has been every week since the beginning of the campaign, some protesters went through barriers that had been erected and set up banners and placards and spent short periods of time within the area during the afternoon where they could be seen by any people passing on the other side of the road. Meanwhile, at the main demo, some banners and placards were set up facing the road, with others facing the walkway, in order to attract the attention of everyone who passed, and campaigners again set about handing out a variety of the campaign's leaflets to the many pedestrians walking by. Literature was taken not only by prospective students, but also by current ones who were acting as guides and some university officials, and again much support was received.

SPEAK continues to go from strength to strength, and it was great to see new faces from all over the country at this week's demos. We will NEVER give up our fight for the voiceless victims of vivisection, and we will ALWAYS take every possible opportunity to inform the public of the brutality that takes place behind the charade of dignity and academic excellence put on by Oxford University. Please join us and play your part in bringing an end to animal suffering in Oxford, and beyond.

For our dear friend Pat Griffin, who dedicated her life to fighting for the voiceless victims of animal abuse and who was an inspiration to so many.