14 February: British Heartless Foundation Day of Action

A well probed theme of this blog has been the decline of effective grassroots anti-vivisection organising in the last 10 years. Repression, low morale and dwindling numbers have all played their part in this but I’m pleased to say that all is not doom and gloom as there is an excellent campaign around at the moment.

The British Heartless Foundation has been busy protesting outside BHF’s charity shops for some time now and tomorrow sees the a special Valentine’s Day of Action which asks the public to have a heart for the animals who suffer because of the the charity.

Most of the people who donate and/or buy from BHF’s charity shops have no idea what their money goes on – cruel and pointless experiments on animals such as dogs, rabbits, pigs, mice, rats and even sheep. The campaign’s website states:

Behind the pleasant imagery that we associate with the British Heart Foundation, smiling doctors, thoughtful patients, colourful shop fronts and fun runners pounding the streets, lies a dark secret: money donated in good faith is spent on sickening animal experiments, often at top name academic institutions  A number of cruel fates await an animal unfortunate enough to be part of a BHF “research project” – they could be bred sole to have their hearts ripped out, be poisoned, or have a heart attack artificially induced. No wonder they don’t advertise the fact they test on animals in any of their shops or at any of their events.

Tomorrow their will be demonstrations at shops across the UK. Unfortunately the group’s website does not list them, they are available only on its Facebook page. As I know on everyone uses social media, here is the complete list.

BHF Nottingham on Angel Row at 12.00pm, BHF Swansea at 10 am,  BHF Trowbridge 10am, BHF Neath in the afternoon, BHF Cardiff, Albany Road, from 11am,BHF Hereford. Eign Gate at 10am then in the afternoon too, BHF Wanstead High Street. 2 – 4pm, BHF Brighton, Western Road 12 – 2pm, BHF Acocks Green, Birmingham TTBC, BHF Derby. Corn Market. 11am onwards, BHF Glasgow Sauchiehall Street – 11am-1pm, (meet 10.45am outside the Centre of Contemporary Arts on Sauchiehall st), BHF Camberley, High Street, Surrey 11am, BHF Cambridge TTBC, BHF Chelmsford. 9:30am, BHF Poole, High st. 10.30 – 2.30pm, BHS Southampton, BHF Bournemouth, BHF Northumberland, BHF Ipswich, BHF Camden, High St, London  11am -3pm,BHF Croydon. 7-10 Suffolk House, George Street 10am -11am, BHF Clapham, London 11.30 – 12.30pm, BHF Fulham, London, Northend Rd 1- 2.30pm, BHF Newcastle, Clayton St, 11am onwards, BHF Norwich, BHF Bury St Edmunds, BHF Hereford, BHF Galashiels 10-11 am,  BHF Coventry Hertford st. (Bull Yard), CV1. 11am onwards, BHF Hastings, BHF Ramsgate, BHF New Malden, Surrey, BHF Leeds, BHF Dundee, 14 Reform Street, DD1 1RG. 2pm-on, BHF Sheffield, BHF Milton Keynes, BHF Inverness, BHF Romford, South Street 12pm, BHF Southend, Essex. 11am Southend High St, 11am, BHF York, 11 Goodramgate, YO1 7LW and 14 Bridge Street, YO1 6DD, BHF Swindon, BHF Wanstead, London, 2-4pm, BHF Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, BHF Nicolson Street, Edinburgh. 2 pm, BHF Brook Street, Ilkley 11-3, BHF Eastbourne, BHF Stourbridge, BHF Swansea, BHF Spalding, Lincs, BHF Hemel Hempstead, BHF Gosport, Bold Street Liverpool around 12pm, BHF Preston, Lancs, BHF Leicester.

As you can see, it’s an amazing effort; no doubt the biggest grassroots anti-vivisection event this country has seen in many, many years. Hats off to the campaign and all the people who will be out tomorrow. This is the animal rights movement doing what it does best, getting on to the streets and campaigning to ordinary people, hitting an animal abuser where it hurts most – in the pocket – and exposing BHS’s dirty secret.

20 years ago there was a similar campaign against Boots the Chemist which had its own laboratory near Nottingham. This went on for years and was eventually successful when the company caved in to the pressure and pulled out of the pharmaceutical business. It was an amazing breakthrough that paved the way for later initiatives against laboratory animal breeders such as Consort, Hillgrove and Shamrock.

Can the BHF campaign be as successful? Who knows? One thing it doesn’t have which the Boots campaign had was the tremendous number of attacks on the shops. A national newspaper reported during the early nineties that 60 – yes 60!! – of Boots’ stores had their windows smashed every month.

Direct action on that scale simply doesn’t go on anymore. But even without it, we know that BHF are getting seriously rattled because they’re scared stiff of people knowing the truth about their dirty secret.  This is one campaign that is not going away!

http://britishheartlessfoundation.co.uk

 

Behind the pleasant imagery that we associate with the British Heart Foundation thoughtful patients, colourful shop fronts and fun runners pounding the streets, lies a dark secret: money donated in good faith is spent on sickening animal experiments, often at top name academic institutions1. A number of cruel fates await an animal unfortunate enough to be part of a BHF “research project” – they could be bred solely to have their hearts ripped out2, be poisoned3, or have a heart attack artificially induced4. No wonder they don’t advertise the fact they test on animals in any of their shops or at any of their events

Behind the pleasant imagery that we associate with the British Heart Foundation: smiling doctors, thoughtful patients, colourful shop fronts and fun runners pounding the streets, lies a dark secret: money donated in good faith is spent on sickening animal experiments, often at top name academic institutions1. A number of cruel fates await an animal unfortunate enough to be part of a BHF “research project” – they could be bred solely to have their hearts ripped out2, be poisoned3, or have a heart attack artificially induced4. No wonder they don’t advertise the fact they test on animals in any of their shops or at any of their events

Behind the pleasant imagery that we associate with the British Heart Foundation: smiling doctors, thoughtful patients, colourful shop fronts and fun runners pounding the streets, lies a dark secret: money donated in good faith is spent on sickening animal experiments, often at top name academic institutions1. A number of cruel fates await an animal unfortunate enough to be part of a BHF “research project” – they could be bred solely to have their hearts ripped out2, be poisoned3, or have a heart attack artificially induced4. No wonder they don’t advertise the fact they test on animals in any of their shops or at any of their events

Behind the pleasant imagery that we associate with the British Heart Foundation: smiling doctors, thoughtful patients, colourful shop fronts and fun runners pounding the streets, lies a dark secret: money donated in good faith is spent on sickening animal experiments, often at top name academic institutions1. A number of cruel fates await an animal unfortunate enough to be part of a BHF “research project” – they could be bred solely to have their hearts ripped out2, be poisoned3, or have a heart attack artificially induced4. No wonder they don’t advertise the fact they test on animals in any of their shops or at any of their events