The UK’s Press Association reports that 85-year-old animal rights activist Joan Court ended a two-day hunger strike on July 16. Court slept and fasted outside the site of a planned new animal research facility at the University of Oxford.
According to the Press Association, this is Court’s third hunger strike. The Press Association quoted Court as saying,
I agreed to do only two days [of the hunger strike] because I thought it would be difficult but I could easily have done double.
Double? Come on folks, how are you ever going to live up to the example set by Barry Horne. After Horne’s antics, I’m just not going to be impressed by hunger strikes of less than a month (and is that really too long to go without food when it’s for the animals? I didn’t think so).
Of course this is not to say that Court and others should not seriously consider what an Oxford spokeswoman told the Press Association,
While the University of Oxford respects the right of individuals to express their views peacefully, we are concerned that any individuals to express their views peacefully, we are concerned that any individual might be putting their own health at risk in order to protest about the construction of a new building or lawful research which could help save lives in the future.
But, if other activists are tired of being bullied by Oxford’s rhetorical tricks it is still a free country — by all means keep on fasting.
Source:
Veteran animal rights campaigner ends hunger strike. John Bingham, Press Association News, July 16, 2004.