Fox-hunting protesters stage hunt in Coney Street (From York Press)
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Fox-hunting protesters stage hunt in Coney Street
8:03am Wednesday 24th October 2012 in News
Lush York staff, from left, Nassira Cheref, Leslie-Anne Tonks-Brown, Jade Flahive-Gilbert and Jonathan Sillence
FOX-HUNTING protesters and staff from a York shop have staged a hunt in Coney Street ahead of the police commissioner elections.
Lush staff – supported by the Hunt Saboteurs Association – dressed as foxes and animal rights protesters were chased around by staff members dressed as police officers.
A spokesman for Lush said the protest was intended to dramatise the public perception that police will turn a blind eye to wildlife crime, while surveying and intimidating animal rights, environmental and peace activists.
He said the police commissioner elections had provoked controversy as the elected candidates will have unprecedented power over police funding and priorities, yet there have been predictions that fewer than 15 per cent of the electorate will vote.
Hilary Jones, ethics director for Lush Limited, said: “In the past, Lush has had talks with the police and animal charities over the issues of wildlife crime and how we could help support the efforts of the Police Wildlife Crime Unit.
“We were very shocked when we discovered how low their budget is to police the whole of the UK. So you can imagine our surprise when the scandal broke last year regarding undercover police operations in the environmental and animal protest movement and we learned of the huge allocation of money to that operation.”
Comments(8)
Ignatius Lumpopo
says...
11:48am Wed 24 Oct 12
baileyuk
says...
5:41pm Wed 24 Oct 12
and hilary jones perhaps wants to look at their own staff and their pastimes!!
and is it just me or does Hilary,s last comments about allocation of budgets , not make any sense
powerwatt
says...
7:17pm Wed 24 Oct 12
Whistlejacket
says...
9:29pm Wed 24 Oct 12
Perhaps they could expend their energy on some other worthy cause, such as votes for women or the repeal of the corn laws.
Greenpie
says...
10:35pm Wed 24 Oct 12
baileyuk
says...
6:04pm Thu 25 Oct 12
MrATP1982
says...
8:22pm Thu 25 Oct 12
5:41pm Wed 24 Oct 12
what a joke, a publicity stunt and nothing more...if lush staff are against fox hunting then vote with their feet and attend and disrupt!!! not just do what their bosses want them to do... a similar stunt was done by lush a year ago,, when store reopened,if they are so against it then run the campaign all year...."
How do you know that at least some of the staff are not involved in direct action against fox hunting? Having been involved in political campaigns in York for a good few years I can tell you that I know several members of staff at Lush (both past and present) have personally been involved in direct action campaigns.
And Lush supports, both financially and through publicity, several political groups who promote and use direct action.
capt spaulding says...
9:42am Wed 24 Oct 12