FIRST HLS/STAPLES DEMO REPORT FROM TEXAS

On Saturday, April 12, 2008, a group of local activists in the North Texas area staged a legal protest at a high traffic Staples in North Dallas. The purpose of this educational demonstration was to enlighten the public of Staples' continued support of Huntingdon Life Sciences by being their source of office supplies.

To say it was a success in an understatement. People who stopped to ask what we were doing were astonished to learn about the atrocities of HLS, and as we had hoped, many were disgusted to learn that Staples was their supplier of office goods. Well over 50% of the people who took a flyer said they would not shop at Staples and turned around and left.

In fact, people driving down the street, who weren't even going to shop at Staples, would pull into the parking lot and listen intently to what we had to say. In one case, a driver made a dramatic U-turn just to see what the hype was all about.

One person even told us how important it is to have people like us out there educating the public. Such encouragement!

For those of us who have demonstrated and protested before, we can sympathize with the discontent most activists feel after a hard day's work, not to mention the prep time and money involved in organizing such events. Not one single person shouted 'terrorist' or had anything negative to say. In fact, to round off the day, as we were packing up, a car pulled up and someone told us that we were doing a great job.

People talked about the Oprah show last week, which dealt with puppy mills. It seems that animal rights issues are, at least to a certain degree, at the forefront of people's minds. Now is the time to capitalize on that.

We have a golden opportunity right in front of us. There are other success stories out there of people demonstrating against Staples. The general public is willing to listen to us right now.

Please consider staging at least one legal educational demo at a Staples in your area. Do more than one if you can. Aside from the personal gratification of getting to see such positive results ON THE SPOT, the most important thing is that if enough people stop shopping at Staples, their bottom line will take a hit. That's the language businesses understand.

Til next time