Saturday 7th November 2009 - Demo Against Primate Experiments
Animal rights campaigners were outside Oxford University again on Saturday to protest against the university’s horrific on-campus vivisection laboratory.
Members of the SPEAK Campaign – a campaign calling for the closure of Oxford labs – stood by the prestigious ceremonial hall during degree day carrying placards and handing out leaflets showing the torture and suffering inflicted on the thousands of animals trapped inside Oxford labs.

Several members of BARC joined the twenty-plus strong protest to show support and solidarity with the animals – and also remember Barry Horne – who was abandoned and left to die in prison over eight years ago by the British government. Members of the public were keen to learn more about the campaign and the struggles Barry Horne went through in aid of the animals.

Chants such as “No excuse for animal abuse”, “Shame on you Oxford University” and “Long live Barry Horne” were said through multiple megaphones as the graduates left the hall. The protesters were greeted with a mixed reaction; with the majority of the public agreeing with them, while family members of the graduates fought to cause trouble in anyway possible – with one person going to the police to complain about one activist’s “excessive use of his megaphone”.

While those students who received their degrees celebrated that night – thousands more animals were suffering inside the university’s vivisection lab. It was just another night for them; another night of pain and torture. The SPEAK campaign refuses to stop protesting outside the University until the laboratory is shut down and every cage is empty.

To learn more about the SPEAK campaign and what you can do to help save the animals trapped inside Oxford University, please visit: www.speakcampaigns.org