Despite the use of megaphones being prohibited in Basel city, the protest was as loud and powerful as always

Arpida AG
Reinach/BL

After Novartis, we visited Arpida in Reinach (near Basel) where we had the opportunity to demonstrate outside of their offices ahead of their scheduled lunch break
Most of the blinds of the lower floor windows were closed, and the building's entrance was blocked by security, but we could still clearly see the workers on the upper floors.
Strangely enough, nobody exited the building via the front entrance whilst our protest took place - perhaps they were too ashamed to face the truth about their involvement with HLS?

Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
Allschwil/BL

Novartis Campus (Bis)
Basel

So long as these companies continue to deal with Huntingdon Life Sciences and avoid making the compassionate choice, we will be back with more demonstrations.

 

02.02.2008: Anti fur protest at BiBA in Lucerne

On saturday, 2nd of february, 8 animal liberation activists gathered in
Lucerne to join the global action weekend against BiBA / ESCADA. Before we
even arrived, we could not avoid noticing the head of a BiBA sales lady,
poking out of the shop, through the posh sliding doors, looking left and
right and left and right again, frenetically searching for the militant
demo terrorists who were about to appear any moment. Punctually at 12
o'clock we started the protest action. Our demo was not permitted to be
held in front of the BiBA shop, but 40 metres down the (main shopping)
street on a lively square. Nonetheless at least one activist was placed at
the entrance of BiBA during our entire demo. Some activists holding a
banner on the square, others distributing flyers, others commuting between
the BiBA shop and our actual demo place, holding posters.
As we started shouting some paroles, a BiBA employee, standing inside the
store, went crazy and started hopping up and down to the rhythm of our
paroles. Only after 20 minutes of protest, the BiBA team gave up, closed
the store and went home. Therefore, we had a break and a vegan picnic in a
warm place, celebrating our triumph, before we continued the protest. We
remained in front of the shop, distributed about 1'000 leaflets and held
our banner for another two hours, informing the public about ESCADA's and
BiBA's bloody business with the cadavres of animals.

 

28.01.2008 SHAC protest in Bern against Novartis


This monday afternoon a dozen of activists meet in front of Novartis in Bern to protest against vivisection and relationship between Novartis and Huntingdon Life Sciences.
An important security apparatus has been mobilized for this protests with numerous armed riot policemen to protect the Novartis criminals from a bunch of peaceful but annoying protesters.
Howewer the activists weren't intimidated by this demonstration of power by Novartis and the riot police and continued the protest as usual, disturbing as much as they could novartis employees during one of their meetings and also disturbing their dirty work.
Deal with HLS deal with US!

19.01.2008 Anti BiBA protest in Lucerne

Today over 20 animal liberation activists found their way to lucerne,
joining the first BiBA demo in switzerland. Located in the heart of
lucerne..s shopping street, the BiBA store was a perfect target of our
powerful and loud demo.
During 3 hours the BiBA staff was confronted with our anger about their
fur trade and our determination to make them fur-free. There wasn..t one
quiet minute for them, and hardly any customers.
Approx. 3..000 flyers have been distributed, informing people about
ESCADA..s and BiBA..s bloody fur trade.

..............

29.12.2007 ESCADA protest in St. Moritz

From 10-16 o..clock we stood in front of the ESCADA shop, holding a transparent saying "No to fur. Violence against animals is not aesthetic" and posters showing animals in fur farms and proclaiming an ESCADA boycott!

Since St. Moritz has the sad reputation to be the stronghold of fur, which is true in winter season when high society shows off there, we sighted dozens of species, worn as dead animals by thousands of ruthless people.

However, feedback was mostly very positive, overwhelmingly many passers-by demonstrated their approval of our protest. It seems that more people oppose fur high up there, at the top of society, as anticipated.

Approx. 3..000 flyers about ESCADA..s fur trade have been handed out to interested people, up to 200 signatures collected for the petition against ESCADA and countless thumb-ups were received by a happy bunch of protesters.

The ESCADA team was annoyed as usual, two bodyguards were hired for this event, who even followed us after our demonstration.

Succesful action, to be continued..


22.12.2007 ESCADA protest in Geneva







As promised the last week: here we are another time!
Another protest held place in Geneva against Escada and her bloody business, and Escada was surely surpised to find out that the opposition against her is growing.
After hearing and seeing the protest against Escada, many persons just started protesting with the activists, our numbers grew quickly until the moment where we were about thirty.
There will be no merry christmas for the animal exploiters!

19.12.2007 - SHAC protest at Novartis, Actelion, Syngenta in Basel





    Once more a group of activists did a tour against Huntingdon Life Sciences through Basel, Switzerland's capital of vivisection! The restrictions for the demos are getting stronger every time. The authorities seem to be very annoyed that there is the right to freedom of opinion since they are interested in protecting money making companies - and these companies really don't like us standing in front of them and revealing the atrocities they are profiting from!
    We started early in the morning at Novartis Campus. The employees of Novartis had to pass us on their way to work. They seemed to be very displeased that their company is still doing that bloody business and thereby provoke such a regular protest in front of their working place. Novartis, if you don't want your workers to quit their jobs you'd better stop dealing with HLS!
    Our next target was Actelion, another customer of HLS, situated outside of Basel City. More activists joined us there and we did another noisy protest. Since we could use megaphones there, we could also do some speeches. So we confronted the workers of Allschwil with dates and facts about vivisection and accused them for ignoring the cruelties that happen inside the laboratories of HLS because companies like theirs profit from them.
    In front of Syngenta we could not only do our protest but also inform a lot of passers-by about HLS and vivisection. A boy looked at our protest and the posters we were holding for a very long time. When he realized that the pictures of the tortured animals were real and that vivisection is really happening for companies like Syngenta, he joined the protest. And he asked a question which all of you money grabbing companies should ask yourselves: How does it make sense to test substances on animals that end up being given to humans?
    Our last protest took place in front of another Novartis building where the echo of our protest accompanied the workers on their way home.
    In 2006, more than 385'000 animals have been tortured and killed in and around Basel for the dubious "science" of vivisection, and almost all of the pharmaceutical companies that Basel is hosting are making profit from animal experiments in laboratories such as HLS. You cannot hide these atrocities by censorship! We are here and we raise our voices for the animals! Close down HLS!
 
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On December the 18th, around fifteen activists gathered in front of Novartis at Berne. Equipped with megaphones, banners, posters and leaflets we did a powerful protest and showed Novartis once more that we don't tolerate their unscrupulous business. Not only employees that left the building. but also the ones that hid inside got our message clearly: No more animal abuse!
 
      Since the Novartis building in Berne is close to a tram stop, we could also inform a lot of people about Novartis' dealings with HLS as well as talk to them about all the senseless animal experiments which are carried out in Switzerland every single day.

  We received a lot of support from the passers-by. An old lady stood in front of Novartis during the whole protest and thanked us many times for raising our voices for the animals. And that's what we will do in front of your buildings, Novartis, as long as you deal with HLS!


15.12.2007 - ESCADA protest in Geneva





For the third time since the start of the global campaign, a dozen activists held a protest outside the front of the Geneva branch of Escada, denouncing the brand's involvement with the atrocities perpetrated by the fur industry.
As usual, the protest was very noisy and annoying for both customers and employees of Escada, but just as in the last two protests, we received a great deal of support from motorists and passers-by. Even the Mayor of Geneva - who was taking his dog for a walk - stopped to show support for the action. We also had some new activists join our ranks.

Escada, we're still here and we won't go away until you choose to be fur free!
See you again next week!

Escada-campaign Switzerland


14.12.2007 - SHAC protest in Geneva against Sanofi-Aventis





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During the afternoon, activists protested in front of Sanofi-Aventis in Meyrin (near Geneva). Sanofi-Aventis is the third largest global pharmaceuticals group according to sales, and also a very important customer of HLS. Activists first protested outside the front of the Logistical offices using megaphones to shout slogans and to explain to employees the reasons why they were there and informing them about the company they worked for.

Protestors then moved outside the Swiss head offices of Sanofi-Aventis where the demo continued for some hours until the majority of employees had left.

Close down HLS!


14.12.2007 - SHAC protest in Nyon against Novartis

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At 7.00am on this freezing December morning, a group of Swiss activist gathering in front of the Nyon branch of Novartis, to protest against the slaughter of countless animals for so-called 'medical science', and against the company's ties with HLS. Huntingdon Life Sciences is the largest vivisection laboratory in Europe and is responsible for the deaths of 500 animals per day.
There is no better way to warm up, than by doing a protest…so we decided to start by showing Novartis exactly what we thought of them. Each employee arriving that morning was greeted with protestors voicing their disgust, and explaining the full horrors of what goes on inside the walls of HLS.
Although the protest took place on a fairly quiet road, some motorists did stop by to express their support, as well as asking for more information.

Novartis, there will be no peace for you. Stop dealing with HLS!

09.11.2007 - SHAC protest day in Basel

On Friday 9th November, another demo tour against vivisection and Huntington Life Sciences took place in Basel. We visited Novartis twice and were also at Actelion and Syngenta.

The authorities and the pharmaceutical companies tried to frustrate us in many ways: they made it really hard to get permission for the demos, didn't allow us to use megaphones in Basel City, put us behind barriers and constantly took photos of us, filming and writing notes
in their little notebooks. Novartis especially put a great effort into supervising and recording us. Their photographer? was even waiting for us on our way to Actelion and took a lot of pictures of us walking down the street. Of course they are all trying to criminalize us for a
totally legal and legitimate protest.

However, we were not so easily frustrated nor intimidated and made a great and powerful protest. For eight hours we made it impossible for these companies to ignore us, giving them no moment of peace and
making almost as much noise as we would have made with megaphones!

About thirty people of all ages from all over Switzerland took part in the demo, shouting, holding posters and banners, distributing leaflets and making it clear to those companies that we won't tolerate their bloody business, torturing and killing animals simply for the sake of making money! We will be back until you stop animal cruelty!

03.11.2007 - ESCADA protest in Geneva

(photos coming soon)

This Saturday, a protest against ESCADA took place in Geneva on the occasion of the Global Day of Action against the Fur Industry, called for by the International Anti-Fur Coalition. The protest began at 15h15. Twelve activists were present and as during the first protest against ESCADA passers-by shared their disgust in the slaughter of millions of animals for the fur industry. About 500 flyers were distributed. There were some minor problems with the police who didn..t want the activists to use megaphones in spite of them having received permission, but in the end, they allowed the protest with megaphones to continue. The protest went on until the shop closed at 17h00. Slogans and speeches did not provide a moment of peace to the Escada employees. ESCADA: we will not stop till you end selling death in your shops.

Escada campaign Switzerland

2.11.2007 SHAC protest in Lausanne against AXA

AXA Winterthur Suisse Romande

On Friday 2nd November, a group of activists protested against AXA in Lausanne. About 10 activists gathered in front of AXA-Winterthur with megaphones, placards and leaflets.

AXA Insurances

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Later they were joined by some more activists for a second protest, this time in front of the AXA insurance offices. There, private security guards had been hired by AXA and the building was nearly empty. An employee informed us that during the afternoon, most of the employees were sent home because of the protest.

Deal with HLS, deal with us.

13.10.2007 - ESCADA protest in Geneva

Geneva

In the afternoon, 15 activists protested in front of ESCADA, in the Rue du Rhone, a street with the sad reputation of having several fur shops. The protest took place from 15h00 to 17h30 and slogans accompanied the ESCADA employees constantly until the shop closed. 700 flyers were handed out and the public reacted positively. Many passers-by showed their support and some even joined the protest. The fur collection was hidden from view today as ESCADA knew we were coming, as was the case in other ESCADA shops in Europe. But your tricks won..t stop us, ESCADA!! We won..t stop the protests until you stop profiting from the death of thousands and thousands of innocent lives.

ESCADA Campaign Switzerland

13.10.2007 - ESCADA protest in St. Moritz

On Saturday, Oct 13th, four activists protested in front of an ESCADA shop in St. Moritz. Although there were many obstacles to overcome (such as penetrant and influental ESCADA managers and security-guys and aggressive and intransigent police officers), the action was a great success! We officially weren..t allowed to demonstrate in front of the ESCADA shop, but we insisted to stay there because there would have been no use in demonstrating somewhere else, far away from the actual target. As time was passing and the police didn..t manage to displace us, the ESCADA crew got quite desperate. Even though the ESCADA team was complaining constantly and tried everything to get us away from their shop, we calmly explained to the police why we did not intend to move away and somehow we were able to convince the city officials that our point of view was correct. Instead of dissolving our demo, the police now tolerated our "unauthorized" protest in front of ESCADA and even supported us. This enabled us to finish our peaceful action until ESCADA closed the shop half an hour earlier! The overwhelming majority of passers-by reacted very positively and gave us support. We distributed over 200 flyers (which is quite a lot considering the fact that St. Moritz is off season now) and our main goal, to show ESCADA that protest is and will be everywhere, and we won..t stop until they kick out all fur, was achieved! We..re satisfied and action will definitely be continued in St. Moritz, stronghold of fur. Until every shop is fur free!

13.10.2007 - ESCADA protest in Zürich

Zum Auftakt der internationalen Kampagne gegen den Pelzhandel bei ESCADA versammelten sich fünf Personen vor deren Filiale. Nach kurzer Zeit wurde uns von den MitarbeitererInnen mitgeteilt, dass die ESCADA-Filiale in Zürich schon längere Zeit auf Pelze verzichtet. Bei einem Kontrollgang durch das Geschäft konnten wir dies bezeugen. Dennoch werden wir in näherer Zukunft überprüfen ob sie dies einhalten. Danach zogen wir weiter zur Mode Gassmann-Filiale an der Bahnhofstrasse welche ESCADA-Pelze verkaufen. Mit Schreckbildern und Flyern bewaffnet machten wir die PassantInnen auf das Leiden der Tiere aufmerksam. Da in der Bahnhofstrasse in Zürich etwa jedes zweite Geschäft Pelz verkauft, wurden die LadenbesitzerInnen sehr nervös. Schon bald traf die Polizei ein, welche uns aber nichts anhaben konnte und wir setzten die Aktion fort.

UNTIL EVERY CAGE IS EMPTY!

2.10.2007 -  SHAC tour switzerland: Basel

Novartis International AG
Basel/BS

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When you arrive in Basel one of the first things you notice are two huge towers with the logo Novartis at the top, then driving around you see a lot of Novartis direction signs indicating all their offices, production plants, laboratories,… Here the majority of the population has a job in the pharmaceutical industry and the football team F.C. Basel has Novartis as sponsor on their shirt. It is in this region of the country that most of the swiss vivisection labs are located. This is the perfect place to hold demonstrations against animal testing! Not at all intimidated by the huge buildings in front of us at 07:30 we were at one of the main gates of the Novartis Campus to greet the workers. For 3 ½ hours non-stop the people working inside this building could hear only sirens and slogans: "Novartis: animal abusers!"; "Stop vivisection!"; "Close down HLS!". For all the time we stood there posh cars entered the place, hundreds of workers passed by us and Novartis security kept taking pictures of us and recording what we were saying at the megaphones. It was so inspiring to see all these activists coming together for a common cause and especially new ones shouting at the megaphone for more than three hours without a break! We're sure the people inside got the message loud and clear!

Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
Allschwil

Another swiss company who still profits from animal torture at Huntingdon Life Sciences. At our arrival all the windows were covered by a curtain and for a moment we thought the building was empty. But soon we realized many people were in and at the lunch break we could see them leaving the building from an exit on the back. Why are they hiding? If you work for a company and you are proud of your job, you should at least be able to defend your position… it seems these people were not so keen on explaining us face to face why they think it is ethical to make a living on the suffering of others. If you don't want to talk with us then it is our duty to explain you our point of view and this is what we did for two hours, helped by the perfect acoustics of the place and our powerful megaphones. These are their headquarters and for sure our presence didn't pass unnoticed, another great demo in defence of the animals imprisoned in their cages at HLS.

Syngenta
Basel/BS

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 The Syngenta headquarters are located in front of an important train station where hundreds of people pass every hour. Here we distributed thousands of leaflets, talking to people who showed a lot of interest in learning about the reasons of our protests and the bloody business of the vivisection industry in general. These are things you never see on T.V. or in the newspapers, especially in Switzerland, and the most frequent reaction from the people we talked with was a total condemnation of these atrocities.
Of course we also concentrated our efforts against Syngenta and also here there was not even a minute of silence for all the 1 ½ hours we demoed this company who kills animals in vivisection labs and poisons entire populations and ecosystems with its pesticides and GMO crops worldwide.

Novartis Pharma Services AG
Basel/BS

Last demo of the day. Almost with no voice left, but still with an undying anger against this company responsible for the killing of 500 animals every day, we held a very visual demo at the workers exit at a site situated on a very busy street, of course almost all owned by Novartis. Here we got an amazing support from passers-by. Especially by a gentleman who, after reading our leaflet, started shouting at the workers, but most of all from an ultramilitant lady who kicked to the ground the bike of a Novartis employee parked in front of the building, gave her thumbs up to us and then walked away in front of the cops!
Novartis, ask yourself why we made four demos in two days in front of your offices but we didn't demoed Roche… of course you know the answer all too well.

These have been two successful days of very effective demos. We reminded these companies that there will always be people ready to confront their lies and crimes and we informed the public about vivisection. The animal rights movement is growing in Switzerland and we're happy to help also the struggle against HLS from here. Until every cage is empty!

1.10.2007 -  SHAC tour switzerland: Nyon, Bern

Around twenty activists of animal rights groups from different parts of Switzerland took part in two days of demonstrations against some important customers of Huntingdon Life Sciences, the largest vivisection lab in Europe which kills 500 animals every day. For two days these evil companies were confronted at their headquarters, and other premises as well. At each demos extra activists joined the group and locals showed their support by bcalling the media and giving us donations.

Novartis Consumer Health SA
Nyon/VD

This is a really huge site where we could see through the windows people wearing white masks and lab coats, as well as confronting posh cars entering the car park. From 11.00 to 14:00 we stood in front of the main gate armed with leaflets, banners, placards, whistles, horns and six megaphones at full volume singing slogans and shouting at every car entering or leaving the place. We explained to the neighbours the reason of our anger detailing the horrors taking place every single day behind the wall of silence surrounding the vivisection laboratories, especially HLS, of which Novartis is an important customer. We asked the employees what they thought about the transplants experiments carried out by their company at HLS: the butchery of thousands of pigs and monkeys, beautiful and intelligent animals, in the name of scientific madness. We also asked them about the suffering of the human victims of Novartis drugs, like Ritalin. Needless to say they showed little compassion for the human and nonhuman animals affected by the results of their greed. After an hour a supportive old lady who was walking her dog called some newspapers and activists were interviewed and photographed. Next day an article was published on an important newspaper from the french part of Switzerland which reported the activists point of view of the struggle against HLS. At the end of the article, the Novartis director in charge for research, Paul Herling, said that a commission called "Novartis Animal Welfare" controls the conditions of the labs they deal with. When the journalist asked him about HLS, he feigned ignorance and said "we will check what this is about"…

Novartis Pharma Schweiz AG
Bern/BE

 At 16:00 we were in another city, in front of another Novartis site, this time only offices. From this demo on a new quite elegant "friend" followed us during the rest of the tour at each Novartis demo showing an amazing interest in taking pictures and controlling our behaviour… but turning his head every time we looked at him (sorry, we wanted a better picture of you). This showed us how much Novartis hates the fact that activists are determined to tell the people what happens in vivisection labs and after pharmaceutical poisons are put on the market.
Here we held a noisy demo for about two hours showing the images of the corpses of beagle puppies to the employees leaving the offices by feet or by car and informing the public about the fraud of vivisection.
After the demo, tired but satisfied, we headed toward the capital of the swiss pharmaceutical empire, Basel, to prepare for the next day demos.