Anti-dairy activists pour milk on Harrods floor after 'occupying' Waitrose cheese aisle

28 July 2022, 16:01 | Updated: 28 July 2022, 16:08

Vegan activists have poured milk on the floor in Harrods and "occupied" the cheese aisle in Waitrose in a protest over the dairy industry.

Protesters tied to Animals Rebellion, a group of activists linked to Extinction Rebellion, staged the demonstrations in supermarkets around London on Wednesday.

Footage and pictures posted on social media showed activists removing cartons of milk from shelves in M&S and Waitrose on Oxford Street after pouring the product on the floor in Harrods.

Other video showed demonstrators emptying shelves stacked with pints of milk.

Another saw activists block a cheese room at Waitrose while holding signs that read: "Caution, Climate Crisis. Dairy = Death."

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Kat Chan, 20, who was in Harrods, told the Evening Standard: "We are taking this necessary action because we don’t feel we have any other choice.

"Last week’s heatwave and wildfires showed us a glimpse of our future if we fail to act now.

"Transitioning to a plant-based food system and rewilding is the key solution to the climate crisis.

"There is no need for the deaths of over a billion animals for food each year in this country."

A spokesperson for Harrods said: "We are aware that five individuals staged a minor protest yesterday in the Harrods Food Halls.

"The individuals were swiftly escorted out of the store and no further action was taken."

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The anti-dairy group explained their actions on Twitter, writing: "The dairy industry is unethical and unjustifiable for many reasons.

"It’s built off of exploiting female cows’ bodies, forcing them into a cycle of forced pregnancy, birth and extracting milk from them.

"Cows used for dairy are killed once their bodies can no longer keep up, and male calves (who cannot produce milk) are killed almost immediately after birth.

"Dairy (along with its sibling, the meat industry) is environmentally and economically unsustainable and unjustifiable, as a major cause of climate change and a drain on government resources as it demands major subsidies to survive.

"The dairy industry is one of the most wasteful industries imaginable. Breeding and continuously maintaining ‘livestock’ just to extract milk from them is unsurprisingly inefficient compared to just making milk alternatives straight from plants!

"In total, it takes on average 628 litres of water to make 1 litre of milk. Isn’t that a teeny bit more wasteful? We need actions like these to show our demands for a #PlantBasedFuture".

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