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A vegan activist has claimed that a Morrison staff member ‘put him in a headlock’ during a protest at the supermarket on Wednesday.
Angus Lancaster and a fellow activist with FriendsNotFood went to a South Gloucestershire branch of Morrisons and showed a sign made up with photos from a pig farm that reportedly supplies the supermarket.
The photos were from Moss Rose Piggeries in Blackpool, which was occupied by around 100 activists from action group Meat The Victims, on July 8.
‘Attacked and restrained’
Lancaster told Bristol Live: “We stood near the Morrisons butcher area for about 10 minutes, then the manager asked us to leave. He was overzealous, pushing us and grabbing at the poster. We went just outside the store.
“We weren’t doing the normal thing of chanting and shouting. We were just standing there. When we were outside, the manager came out and grabbed the poster.”
According to a statement by FriendsNotFood, multiple staff including managers ‘attacked and restrained the two demonstrators with the sign, smashed up the sign, grabbed and ran off with their phone and deleted evidence of their behavior/assault’.
Video footage from the event shows the protestor being restrained as staff break his sign
Morrisons
Morrisons claims that the activists in fact assaulted its staff, putting out a statement yesterday saying: “We called the police regarding an assault on one of our colleagues in our Yate store yesterday evening. The matter is now subject to a police investigation.”
According to a spokesperson for Avon and Somerset Police: “Staff told officers that two protestors with distressing images of animals were inside the store and refusing to leave.
“There were further calls from members of the public reporting a scuffle. Officers attended and two members of store staff alleged they had been assaulted by one of the protesters.
“The protester alleged that store staff had assaulted him, damaged his placard and deleted footage from his phone. Officers are reviewing CCTV of the incident and three men are all due to attend voluntarily for interview over the incident.”
