Nine people have been arrested during an animal rights protest at a supermarket in Brighton.
They were among a group of about 40 protesters who went into Waitrose, in Western Road, Brighton, on Saturday (29 June).
The Direct Action Everywhere protesters said that they lined up in the dairy, fish and meat aisles, holding up signs and making speeches.
They said: “We are targeting Waitrose because they use humane-washing messaging in order to sell their animal products.
“Treating animals nicely does not justify killing them and using their bodies for your own gain. They are individuals.”
The group said that it had targeted Waitrose previously as well as Brighton supermarket Hisbe in January for using “humane-washed messaging to give consumers the impression that there is an ethical way to kill animals and consume their flesh and secretions”.
It said that “only the abolition of using animals is morally right and are aiming for the long-term goal of total animal liberation”.
Sussex Police said: “Sussex Police have arrested nine people following protests across Brighton.
“Officers attended Waitrose, in Western Road, to reports of a large group people being involved in an animal rights protest just before 5pm on Saturday.
“Police provided an immediate response which resulted in nine members of the group being arrested for failing to provide their names or addresses.
“All nine remain in custody and the investigation remains ongoing.”
The operation commander Chief Superintendent Lisa Bell said: “We worked with the supermarket staff and organisers to facilitate peaceful protests that balance the rights of those to protest without disproportionately affecting the rights of the general public.
“However, disruptive, criminal and intimidating behaviour will not be tolerated and we will use our police powers to act on this.”
Protesting is fine but when you invade private property or start affecting other people going about their lawful business then you’ve gone too far.
How many people did they disrupt on Saturday clogging up the roads so badly it took hours for buses and traffic to get back to normal?
Unfortunately protests that don’t cause disruption are ignored and don’t have any effect. A little upsetting actually that you can be arrested for peacefully protesting. I don’t think causing a bit of a disruption in the meat isle should count as criminal.
Invading other people’s space and having people walk out and the owners loosing money…..can amount to terrorism. A demonstration outside of a business is not against the law but this group takes it three steps further.