AR-News: Jeremy's diary

[סמדר]

From: primfocus at waste.org

http://www.primatefreedom.com/diary.html

Tuesday, June 1, 2004

Portland

Due to the Memorial Day holiday, today is the first day that most of the
vivisectors at the Oregon lab saw me tabling in front of the lab. It appears
they don't like me here (oh boo hoo). One shouted "get a life" as he left
and another pulled right up along side the road and filmed me for about a
minute.

Leaving aside those who have financial interests in hurting primates, almost
all responses from people I spoke with were again in support of ending
primate vivisection. There is a large suburban neighborhood that I am
tabling in front of, and many of the people that are stopping by are entire
families. One family
said she has never known exactly what went on in the lab until she spoke
with me, but always assumed it wasn't good. She offered me her backyard to
camp out in since local police do not seem to like the idea of me camping
out in that field. This neighbor lives only a few blocks from the primate
center.

I got about a dozen people stopping by the table today. A bit slow; but
perhaps that's counteracted by my gratefulness of the amazing weather today.
I put sunblock on, but forgot my nose/ears so I'm very burnt now. Ah well.

My most interesting visitor today was a woman named Sharone (not sure how to
spell). She said that she saw me here for the first time on Saturday
afternoon and thought to herself "oh get a life." But after driving by
repeatedly on the way to and from work, she finally starting saying "hey
maybe I should stop and see why this guy is sitting by himself for so long."
She said she is a devout Christian, and her two younger kids are starting to
avoid products tested on animals. She felt that my presence in front of the
lab and her kids' recent decision to boycott cruelty was a sign from God
that she should rethink society's treatment towards animals.

I showed her Matt Rossell's pictures from the lab and presented the moral
argument that people should not even have the option of using primates as
test subjects. She seemed very compelled at the time - and apparently was
because a few hours later she showed up again. She asked if I was going to
be back tomorrow because she wanted to sit and talk with me further. I hope
I see her again tomorrow.

A local activist, Norm, stopped by and helped me out from the hours of 5
pm - 8 pm (closing time). A big thanks goes to Norm! Who especially helped
me during that last hour where I had a very serious allergic reaction to the
pollen in the air (I think) and my left eye was so puffy I couldn't even see
out of it. His friendly dog Lepa also joined our demonstration.

That's all for today!

Jeremy




the wild, cruel beast is not behind the bars of the cage. he is in front of it - axel munthe

"Never doubt that a small group of dedicated citizens can change the world. 
Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."      Margaret Mead
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