PHENOMENEX DEMO IN LA

 

Over twenty activists participated in a lively protest at the ten-million-dollar-plus, palatial mansion owned by Phenomenex President and CEO Farajollah Mahjoor. Phenomenex supplies crucial chromatography equipment to the notorious Huntingdon Life Sciences to poison, abuse, torture, and kill over five hundred animals every single day in its three laboratories.

When activists arrived, they legally marched down the long conspicuous driveway to the mansion, after which two of them politely knocked on Mahjoor's door in an attempt to talk with him about his company's complicity in the poisoning of animals at HLS. An undercover video of what goes on inside the evil HLS has been sent and delivered to Mahjoor along with information from the five undercover investigations showing technicians punching beagle puppies in the face and cutting up conscious primates - and workers even simulating sex acts with the tortured animals. Apparently, Mahjoor would rather have all the dirty, disgusting blood money HLS pays him than cut his ties with this egregious company.

The sun was setting over the Pacific Ocean on a crystal clear day (you can see the ocean view in the background) in some of the pictures. It is an outrage that Mahjoor gets to watch the sun set over his mega-mansion with his private tennis courts and ornate swimming pool every evening while animals are being tortured inside the company he supplies. The imprisoned animals inside HLS will never get to see the sky, let alone a panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean as they endure the agony of the HLS vivisection machinery and are then killed when they are no longer needed to test oven cleaner, bleach, and pesticides.

The mansions in this area of the expensive enclave of Palos Verdes Estates are so large that activists had to go cross-country over large acres of ravine in order to protest Mahjoor. But, as you can see in some of the photos taken of Mahjoor's ornate wall with Italian columns protecting his tennis courts, activists were creative enough to make sure that he heard their grievances and pleas to sever his ties with this evil company.

It was only minutes after activists' arrival that someone inside called police and four black-and-whites came careening to the scene with their sirens blaring and lights flashing. The roof lights were so bright they lit up the brand-new black Mercedes Benz - a symbol of and testament to the amount of money Mahjoor makes from supplying this animal-murdering company - parked in his driveway.

Activists obeyed all laws and let Mahjoor know that they who were there that evening were the reasonable ones accompanied by a legal observer, a photographer, and videographer to document their law-abiding exercise of their First Amendment rights to let him and his neighbors know what actually goes on inside the hellhole that is HLS. Considering activists have been doing these protests for the past three years and Mahjoor has yet to do the moral and ethical thing by severing his ties with HLS proves that the money he is making is more important to him then the crimes being perpetrated against 500 innocent animals every single day.

This ability of Mahjoor and his relatives to look the other way and simply ignore the tremendous agony, misery, and death which occurs inside HLS - and then try and stop legal pickets to educate and move him to do what's right for the animals - is one of the reasons that some individuals elect to stay in the shawdows and away from pickets and police cameras in order to carry out underground actions against companies like Phenomenex. When the obsession with accumulation of wealth trumps the enormous suffering of sentient beings, some are compelled by their consciences to engage in more direct and illegal forms of protest. But the activists there that evening were present because the Constitution and Bill of Rights give Americans the ability to seek redress of grievances through legal protest activity - and what better way to do so than to take those grievances directly to the doorsteps of those who have the ability, power, and influence to do what is right by the innocent animals who cannot speak on their own behalf or protect themselves from the evildoers?

Activists left with a message for Mahjoor: "We will never back down until you cut your ties with HLS!"