PRESS RELEASE:
Today, Thursday June 6th, 2013. KOALA (Kitchener Ontario Animal Liberation Alliance) held a demonstration at Springbrook Death/Fur Farm, located at 1561 Berlett’s Road in St. Agatha Ontario. The farm, which is owned by Paul Oswald and kills 50, 000 mink per year (for fashion + greed), is hidden in a remote area just outside this quiet little town.
Activists arrived unannounced at 2:00pm, taking the factory farm by surprise. People formed a line and blockaded the only entrance to the farm. Protestors passionately shouted over loud megaphones to “Stop killing for fashion!” and “Animals first - Profits last!” Demonstrators also held up signs to oncoming traffic opposing the fur trade.
Partway through the demonstration, a man in a large black pick-up truck tried to enter the farm and maliciously drove into several of the protestors who were blockading the entrance. Only when one person shouted out “Stop! You’re on camera!” did the man actually stop driving into people. Eventually the man gave up and drove back onto the road and into the neighboring property. Victory.
Shortly after, the police arrived on scene and started intimidating people and threatening arrests for disturbing the peace. Knowing their rights, the activists called the police’s bluff and continued shouting and chanting. When this method of intimidation failed, the police handed out parking tickets to demonstrator’s cars (that were parked in an area which had been previously designated for parking by the same police force). This police tactic of ticketing demonstrator’s cars is becoming more common and was recently used to disrupt a similar protest at African Lion Safari in Hamilton.
When asked “Why protest fur farming?” one member of KOALA was quoted as saying “Mink at this farm spend their entire lives in tiny wire cages where they can barely turn around. They are always left in harsh weather, exposed to rain and snow in order to make their pelts thicker. Then they are killed slowly and painfully with gas after living a miserable life. They are deprived of their freedom so that some rich person can have fur trim on their jacket to show off their status. On top of that, someone’s getting rich off of all this pain and suffering. It needs to end!”
The demonstration raged on until 4:00pm, when activists left peacefully.
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