Degree Ceremony Demo

Saturday 12 May 2012

A young vegan Oxford academic came up to the stall to say that she had volunteered to take drugs for medical advancement because she couldn't bear the thought of the suffering that went into animal testing and it was her way of helping to try to stop these barbaric experiments, and said that she had recently taken TB samples.

Two people from the Netherlands came to ask whether in England there were anti-animal abuse candidates for Parliament. In the Netherlands they have a party called ‘Animals Count’ which holds 2 of the 150 seats in their parliament. They suggested that this was the way forward for this country, and offered to stay in touch to help.

A young man from the Walking Tour approached the stall to say how much he admired SPEAK, saying how compassionate and humane the people are, and how their presence made the public think and talk about the whole issue of animal experiments which he thought were outdated, unnecessary and inhumane. He particularly liked the placard saying "While Oxford Celebrates, Animals Suffer", and said that this said it all.

One student coming out of the ceremony was heard to say "I wish that injunction covered the degree ceremony as well" - which is one more reason why it is essential that SPEAK is there. SPEAK’s voice is heard and the message for humanity is taken right around the world.

Fantastic support was given throughout the whole day, which raised the spirits of all the people representing SPEAK, and everybody agreed that the whole protest had been, as usual, well worthwhile.