Trafalgar Square 1908 It was a sad day for me on Saturday, 7th of December.
The 'event', of which I was part, was in Trafalgar Square, London where an amazing number of people could be seen swarming in all directions; the ideal spot to interact with a lot of people.
The National Gallery takes pride of place at the top of the Square with a street running in front of it, which has now become pedestrian. In doing so, it has enlarged the area of the square to allow for added spectacles, buskers and demonstrators.
I was one of those peaceful demonstrators competing with poorly drawn chalk drawings of world flags, various disguised buskers and even a Scottish piper, who didn't get full credit for his performance. The outlandish seemed to take priority for those tourists wanting to experience the thrill of the crowds.
You may be wondering why a scene with a lot of colourful animation would leave me feeling sad?
Why would seeing someone dressed as Darth Vador or Yoda, a white mouse or a half naked man, pulling in a hundred people to watch him act the fool, dismay me?
It is simple.
The event I was part of was to inform people about the ignoble transport of primates to their death by Air France/KLM, one of the last major airlines profiting from the commerce. We hoped people would sign our petition, but no. Our stand hardly benefited from cursory glances as people passed by in a hurry to inspect smudged chalk flags on the pavement, and to add coins to their own country's symbol.
How can people be so insensitive? Monkeys and other animals are dying (the ones who die in transport are the lucky ones) with help from AF/KLM, and this only for profit.
Atrocious experiments on monkeys, dogs, cats, not to mention rodents, are not viable for anything but their own species. It is a commerce fuelled by those pharmaceutical companies who thrive on us all and our illnesses, often causing disasters with their drugs like Thalidomide, among many less publicize catastrophes.
Operating on a monkey to give it Parkinson's disease and then trying treatments on it to cure it, is nothing short of STUPID! Monkeys do not get Parkinson's. A false Parkinson's will give false results....
So if you fly Air France/KLM, keep in mind that there is every chance that while you're in your seat watching an in-flight movie or sampling one of their meals, there will be hundreds of monkeys in the baggage hold either dying or destined to die futilely in laboratories.
If you pass by a stand advocating anti-vivisection, take a minute to look and perhaps sign a petition. It really is for your own good as well as all those tortured animals and people, victims of the effects of medicines tested ineffectually on animals.
Trafalgar Square & National Gallery today
RSS Feed
