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Protest

One Struggle, One Fight

The only protests for over a year are about the SARS-COV-2 measures. As those protest are used as an excuse for riots by some it was a pleasure to see the announcement the Animal Liberation March 2021 in Amsterdam.

The protest had a simple message… Don’t use animals, not as food source, not as test subject, not as pet, nothing! It wasn’t mentioned, but an emotional support animal, a dog that senses and warns you when you are falling ill or a guide dog for the blind isn’t possible either.

The protest was a march through the center of Amsterdam. The pace was slow and distance was kept to make the group as long as possible. The goal was to get the message heard as longs as possible to ensure everybody takes notice. That worked as plenty of people took photos and made videos when the group passed by.

During the tour there were a few stops. The first one was where the Burger King and McDonald’s are opposite each other. Besides chanting and informing the public about the huge amount of animals are killed for these companies every day there was sound… two minutes long… from a slaughterhouse. The second stop was at the Leidseplein, a perfect location for a die-in with a minute of silence and… yes, again two minutes of slaughterhouse sound. On paper the planned route looked a bit strange to me, but it became very clear. It took us along a lot of fast-food restaurants and steakhouses.

As I was on the outside of the protest making photos I noticed most of the public reacted positive to the passing group. The police and low ranking security staff of the city didn’t make any problem as the group moved along in orderly fashion, ensured the group was safe and traffic not blocked too long. The team scrubbing the street even took a break and turned their machine off during the minute of silence.