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BARCLAYS AND STAPLES DEMOS IN LUTON

Saturday, 9th May

We first visited Barclays Bank in Luton town centre. Barclays are one of the biggest shareholders in Europe’s most exposed animal testing laboratory Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). We visited Barclays from approximately 11.30am and had a good response from the public, handing out leaflets to customers and passers by; a couple of customers even told us that they would be closing their accounts with Barclays.

Many people were happy to take a leaflet and no-one seemed bothered by our presence, however the same could not be said about Barclays staff. They were unhappy about placards being placed outside the bank and, after this had been resolved, they apparently continued to complain to the police about our presence. They also thought it appropriate to laugh and make unsavoury remarks about us. Eventually they called the police again and, after reappearing from inside the bank, the officers approached us and told us that we had to move away despite the fact that we were in a public place and not on private property. When questioned they said that we were intimidating customers. We challenged this and asked them to check the CCTV footage and that of the bank’s own security camera as we were fully aware that we had not behaved inappropriately.

In order to defend ourselves from these accusations one campaigner attempted to video the encounter with the police. One of the police officers did not like this and tried to prevent us filming saying that we were not allowed to do this. When challenged he said that he had not given us permission to film him. It was pointed out to him that as he was in a public place we were within our rights to photograph and film him. This did not stop him from threatening and trying to seize the video camera. Eventually after being challenged further by us and being unable to justify their actions the police left and we continued to campaign outside the bank until approximately 3pm.

We then decided to pay a flying visit to Staples where we encountered an entirely different attitude from the store manager. He came out to see what was happening and, when asked if he had called the police yet, he said words to the effect of ‘No, we don’t phone the police, why should we, you are allowed to protest’. It’s just a pity that the police and staff at Barclays did not have the same attitude.

Overall the day was a success and we hope we’ve made lots of people aware of the suffering that goes on inside HLS and of those businesses that support this. We hope to be back in the near future in and around Bedfordshire, why not come and join us?

More photos: http://www.flickr.com/groups/bedfordanimalaction/pool/

Bedford Animal Action
info@bedfordanimalaction.org
www.bedfordanimalaction.org






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	home >> news BARCLAYS AND STAPLES DEMOS IN LUTON Saturday, 9th May We first visited Barclays Bank in Luton town centre. Barclays are one of the biggest shareholders in Europe’s most exposed animal testing laboratory Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). We visited Barclays from approximately 11.30am and had a good response from the public, handing out leaflets to customers and passers by; a couple of customers even told us that they would be closing their accounts with Barclays. Many people were happy to take a leaflet and no-one seemed bothered by our presence, however the same could not be said about Barclays staff. They were unhappy about placards being placed outside the bank and, after this had been resolved, they apparently continued to complain to the police about our presence. They also thought it appropriate to laugh and make unsavoury remarks about us. Eventually they called the police again and, after reappearing from inside the bank, the officers approached us and told us that we had to move away despite the fact that we were in a public place and not on private property. When questioned they said that we were intimidating customers. We challenged this and asked them to check the CCTV footage and that of the bank’s own security camera as we were fully aware that we had not behaved inappropriately. In order to defend ourselves from these accusations one campaigner attempted to video the encounter with the police. One of the police officers did not like this and tried to prevent us filming saying that we were not allowed to do this. When challenged he said that he had not given us permission to film him. It was pointed out to him that as he was in a public place we were within our rights to photograph and film him. This did not stop him from threatening and trying to seize the video camera. Eventually after being challenged further by us and being unable to justify their actions the police left and we continued to campaign outside the bank until approximately 3pm. We then decided to pay a flying visit to Staples where we encountered an entirely different attitude from the store manager. He came out to see what was happening and, when asked if he had called the police yet, he said words to the effect of ‘No, we don’t phone the police, why should we, you are allowed to protest’. It’s just a pity that the police and staff at Barclays did not have the same attitude. Overall the day was a success and we hope we’ve made lots of people aware of the suffering that goes on inside HLS and of those businesses that support this. We hope to be back in the near future in and around Bedfordshire, why not come and join us? More photos: http://www.flickr.com/groups/bedfordanimalaction/pool/ Bedford Animal Action info@bedfordanimalaction.org www.bedfordanimalaction.org
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