Kitsunegari | ryuuzaki's Blog

I woke up today to see my Facebook page inundated with spam from Lush to defend their decision to support guerrilla groups who sabotage fox hunts.

As you're probably aware, fox hunting in Britain is considered by (mainly the uber rich) to be some kind of macabre sport.  Foxes are chased down by specially trained dogs and men on horseback until they are too exhausted to run any more and then they are usually torn to shreds.

Obviously, most of us rational-minded people consider the sport to be barbaric and believe that if we ban cock fighting and bear bating then we should also ban fox hunting.  I grew up in a rural area and do believe foxes to be vermin.  They're very beautiful, but a single fox can easily wipe out an entire chicken coop.  Farmers need to exterminate foxes if they're killing off their livestock.  However, it's a lot more human just to shoot the foxes and kill them instantly than for chase them down for hours and then allow dogs to savage them. 

However, most of us rational-minded people also don't support the guerrilla groups.

You all know the sort of "charities" that I mean.  These are the kind of people who would actually hurt other people in order to get their message across.  They work by sabotaging equipment that can inevitably lead to injury or death.  I have a friend who works as a vivisectionist and she is forced to endure protests by these people on a daily basis.

Which brings me to my thoughts on Lush now.  I admire Lush as a company as they are constantly raising money for a variety of different environmental charities (as I, myself, support the WWF it is something that I believe in).  However, I don't like the fact that they've broken away from more respected charities to support violent ones.  I also have a great pity for their workers.

Lush shops have recently been targeted by people who support fox hunting.  The shops have been vandalized and the workers threatened.  Lush says that it's not withdrawing its support of these guerrilla groups in light of the threat.  Sure, you shouldn't back down to bullies, but this decision is being made by higher ups and they really need to think of the safety of their staff.  Would you want to work somewhere where you were being threatened with bodily violence?  I know I wouldn't.  They didn't pick to work in Lush to support a ban on fox hunting.  It's not like Lush itself is actively involved in these groups.  I just think that there are better (and safer) charities that Lush could choose to support - ones where their staff would be in no danger for them doing so...

Anyway, that's my views on the subject...