There was an almost indefinable air of excitement all around us, the time was almost here. Everybody had a rough idea of what they had to do, but a lot of last minute planning still needed to take place, including buying car insurance. There were five of us all together, all with differing levels of experience when it came to direct animal liberation activity. I hadn’t done anything like this before and was nervous beyond belief. But I felt strong and in control for the first time in my life, we were going to free those lab animals because it was the right thing to do, and that was more than enough of a reason.
We had all come to Hamburg for this action, three of us came here from other parts of rural Germany while the other two were native Hamburgers. Yes, that’s what they are called – Hamburgers, which is hilariously ironic for a couple of vegans who are about to break into a government science facility to free the animals. We have booked into a hotel in Hamburg for the last couple of days before the action, thinking that it was a good idea to familiarize ourselves with the city and with the site before we began. The first night we spent getting drunk and just generally bonding, which is crucial before anything like this takes place. Now it is down to business, and all five of us are here inside this hotel room, hungover and anxious about the action taking place tomorrow.
We had all met through an environmental group that was fairly active in Germany, but we had bonded because our mission lay elsewhere. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing against those hippies who want to save the rain forests, a lot of them are my friends – I just think that they have their priorities wrong. In my opinion, saving the animals needs to take priority, and that is what we are here to do. A lot of the planning is done already. We know where the facility is and we know how to get inside. We booked this hotel through the zleep.de – Hotels in Germany website because of its close proximity to the laboratory, so that we can go out early tomorrow morning while its still dark, hopefully unnoticed. Boris, the most experienced among us, has a friend there who works as a cleaner and is going to let us into the building and make it look like it was forced entry.
Once we are inside the building, that’s when the work really begins. We are not sure exactly what we are going to find there, but are quite sure that cats, mice and rabbits are being held. Once the animals are free we are going to take them to a sympathetic vet who we know, and he will see if these animals are going to make it in the free world. We might lose a couple, but in our opinion one minute of freedom is better than a lifetime in captivity, especially when some of these animals are in constant pain. We are all feeling hyped, strong, and almost ready. Less than 10 hours now until the action, wish us luck.
