Liberate

Over the last six months Auckland (and some Wellington) Animal Rights activists have been keeping Police on their toes and the courts busy. Protests during Fur Free Auckland, World Lab Animal Week and at the recent ANZCCART Conference have seen eleven activists in court involved in five separate trials. It would be great to see you in court to show your support for these activists.

Fur Free Auckland
1x Assault

A storm-in at Modes Fashion Store in New Market saw one activist arrested for assault. This demo was part of Auckland Animal Action’s Fur Free Auckland Campaign and was protesting the sale of factory farmed rabbit and fox fur trimmed garments at the store.

The assault relates to a small scuffle on the stores internal staircase that resulted from a shop assistant pushing activists. The interesting thing is that footage from the incident shows the shop assistant attacking the activist in question and the her doing nothing to
retaliate.

Naturally the Police will take the word of a fancy business owner over an activist so it will be great to see the store owner and Police questioned about this one when they are questioned in court

Court Hearing: December, Auckland Central District Court

Fur Free Auckland
1x Disorderly Behaviour

At an Auckland Animal Action Fur Free demo outside Saks, in New Market, an activist was arrested for disorderly behaviour. The so called ‘disorderly behaviour’ resulted from some washable fake blood that was dripped over the entrance to the shop.

Footage and photographs from this demo clearly show that the arrested activist was not the one who spilt the blood and that the shop owner identified the wrong person. Not to mention it was washable fake blood – what the fuck!

I guess we should know not to expect the Police to do something worthwhile.

Update: the Police dropped this at the last minute – funny that. It could not possibly be because they like to waste our time could it?

World Lab Animal Week
1 x Intimidation, 1 x Unlawfully in a Yard

During World Lab Animal Week Auckland Animal Action held a series of demos at various locations linked with vivisection. One of these was at number 4 Flagstaff Terrace, Devonport. This is the home of Paul Rose, Director of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

The home demo was held at the reasonable hour of 8am and unlike other Auckland Animal Action home demos was pretty much completely silent so that we could leaflet and talk to the many people out jogging and going for a morning coffee.

Some people went up to the front door to try and talk to Paul and see if he knew what GSK were up to with regard to animal testing. There was no yelling, no megaphone and no chanting and the person who was arrested did not say a word let alone get anywhere near the front of the house. He did however have a camera that he apparently used to take pictures of Paul’s children in the lounge despite him not being anywhere near the window – go figure.

Court Hearing: December 2008, North Shore District Court

World Lab Animal Day
2 x Unlawfully on a Building

On World Lab Animal Day two members of Auckland Animal Action climbed onto part of the Auckland University Medical School building to protest the use of animals in their underground labs.

They were arrested for unlawfully being on a building.

Court Hearing: 22nd September 2008, Auckland Central District Court and 6th April 2009, Auckland Central District Court.

ANZCCART Conference 2008
8 x Unlawfully in a Yard

During the ANZCCART conference eight people were arrested following a demo at Landcare Research in East Auckland.

During the demo, activists entered the Landcare office building and were assaulted by staff. When attempting to leave, they were led into an enclosed yard that they were then prevented from leaving.

Court Hearing: 7th January 2009, Auckland District Court