Londoners Window Shop for Animal Testing
By Don Ferguson on Tuesday, December 24, 2013
One of this year’s most visually disturbing PR stunts took place on London’s Regent Street, in the window of artisan high-street soap peddlers Lush – who gave their shop window over to a compelling protest against animal testing.
Working with The Humane Society, to highlight their ethical standing within the cosmetic industry, a young female artist was restrained and tortured via force-feeding and the injection of cosmetics – in front of hundreds of high-street shoppers.
Jacqueline Traide, a 24 year old artist ffrom Oxford, subjected herself to ten hours of experimentation – having her head shaved and a number of irritants sprayed directly into her eyes, all on one of the busiest days in the festive shopping calendar. Looking sincerely petrified by the whole affair, many gazed open mouthed as the men in white coats pinned her down to a medical bench and forcibly opened her mouth with metal hooks, before feeding her until she gagged.
What’s more, Jacqueline was injected needles, burnt and suffered the smearing of painful ointments across her face, in her eyes nose and mouth. Judging by the reaction of those who saw it, the hideous spectacle successfully highlighted the various cruelties inflicted on animals during lab testing.
The stunt itself coincided with World Week for Animals in Laboratories, which will see a multinational roll-out over 700 Lush Ltd stores in the United States, Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Russia.
Lush campaign manager Tamsin Omond said: “The ironic thing is that if it was a beagle in the window and we were doing all these things to it, we’d have the police and RSPCA here in minutes.
“But somewhere in the world, this kind of thing is happening to an animal every few seconds on average.
“The difference is, it’s normally hidden. We need to remind people it is still going on.”
For more information about the campaign, visit www.fightinganimaltesting.com”
