08/09/06
Today
we held a day of action against QinetiQ to remind them that whilst cruel
outdated tests are being carried out on goats at their Alverstoke Laboratory,
compassionate people will be there to show their objections.
We
set off at 6 am, and reached our first point of action just after 7.30
am so that we could inform the employees of QinetiQ on Haslar Rd, Gosport
what happens at their Alverstoke Lab. We were warmly received by a great
number of employees as they arrived at work, who smiled and waved in
support. This is not surprising considering QinetiQ are carrying out
tests which the French Navy are doing without animals.
After two and a half hours we moved our demo just minutes down the road
to the Alverstoke Laboratory, on Fort Road, Gosport. This is the site
where goats are put in decompression chambers; many of them die from
the bends, and many more are killed off just because they are no longer
needed or get too old.
We spent over an hour here chanting loudly and displaying banners so
that the public know what is happening behind all that razor wire. We
saw many contractors and associates arrive at the site, which must have
been very embarrassing for QinetiQ. How can they justify their tests
to anyone after telling the press their research on goats helped in
the Russian Kursk disaster... where all 118 of the crew died.
We felt our point had been made here, and had to be on our way to our
third site at Portsdown Hill. This is a massive site but we still made
our voices be heard and lots of people were leaving and entering the
site, we called upon them to help us with this campaign by writing to
their head office to tell them they want the cruel tests to stop.
We were overwhelmed by the support at this site, lots of people waved
and showed support. Many people told us to keep up the good work, and
that they did not support the tests going on at Alverstoke. A couple
of people pledged to contact their head office to register their opposition.
We very much welcome this support and thank the employees at Portsdown
Hill for speaking up against the barbarity at Alverstoke.
We left Hampshire to visit QinetiQ in Funtington, near Chichester, W.Sussex.
As we arrived we called upon the employees to stand up against animal
cruelty and contact Head Office. The employees here didn’t seem
to want to stop the abuse at Alverstoke and shut up all their warehouses.
We were on a busy road and drew lots of attention and shame to QinetiQ.
After about half an hour jobs-worth from Portsdown arrived to bring
a security guard to stand at the gate! That’s not going to stop
us demonstrating and bringing a bad name to your company!
After the majority of the workers left this site we returned to Porstdown
Hill so that we could speak to more workers as they left to go home.
We call upon all QinetiQ employees to speak to Head Office and stop
the cruel tests. Not long before we left to go home jobs-worth returned
to put his security guard back at Portsdown!
Our job for today was finished at around 6 pm when we began our journey
home!
