Dancing Cows in Devon

Sainsburys promised to get rid of GM after huge public demand. But they decided it was ok to use animals reared on GM feed to provide their meat and dairy products. It's unlabelled. It's untested. And GMOs could be in the milk you drink. It's time to sort them out, we said!

This is the report of the action that happened in Exeter. However similar scenes were repeated in Coventry, Bracknell, Plymouth, Wales, Taunton and Sherbourne.

Climbing cows, pink cow and giant maize, banners, labelling and photographers. Sound familiar? Well maybe that's because Greenpeace, not content with just taking the 'Something Scary in the Dairy' slogan from the grassroots activists have actually been keeping an eye on us over the last two months and having heard the plans did it all last week. However yesterday we did it in seven different Sainsbury's locations simulataneously.....

Once all assembled with local press ready and waiting undercover GM protection officers went into the supermarket and placed warning stickers on dairy products. Having performed their mission undetected, two cows climbed a ladder on to the glass canopy above the Sainsbury's sign and opened a banner. With the sainsbury's logo in perfect position the slogan read 'Sainsbury's GM - Fed Dairy Untested, Unlabelled & in here', sending a clear message to customers entering the store. Meanwhile another banner was taken inside; held up by giant balloons, it was very shiny but only lasted a few seconds as the ceiling was too low and it was snatched by staff. As the balloons went up (and down!) the pantomine cow and giant maize plant made their entrance. Clambering ungracefully into a trolley the cow was driven around the supermaret by Maisy the GM maize who tried to convince shoppers how wonderful she was, and explained to them how she appeared in their milk through the cow. After around 10 minutes the cow was wheeled out by Maizy and Sainsbury's staff providing waiting photographers with pretty pictures, as if the dancing cows on the roof weren't enough!
During this time there was also a tannoy announcement made informing customers of the situation with Sainsbury's and G.M, stickering continued inside the building and leafletting outside. This achieved a highly positive response from customers with many supportive horn beeps and shouts from people leaving and entering the store. During this time one of the stickerers was forcibly ejected from the store by staff but made such a noise about it that they didn't bother again.
After about an hour and a half of the cows being on the canopy it was decided that they would come down, but when the ladder was sent for it was no longer there! At this time the main banner had already been passed down, so the police where informed that until the ladder was found we would have to continue (time for a very embarrassed manager here); after about ten minutes of searching and us saying we didn't need the fire brigade as we thought we had a ladder half of ours came back from somewhere in the depths of the store, but half wasn't enough, more mutterings about fire service and searching and the other part was found in the next door scrap yard! Success- the chilly cows could come down now.
No arrests at all on such a glorious successful day, only slightly marred by somebody chucking pints of milk at one of our entourage (who had left site after mentions that maybe they should be arrested for criminal damage) and was watching from the pavement, but on the whole a very lovely day out had by all but Sainsbury!
Climbing cows, pink cow and giant maize, banners, labelling and photographers. Sound familiar? Well maybe that's because Greenpeace, not content with just taking the 'Something Scary in the Dairy' slogan from the grassroots activists have actually been keeping an eye on us over the last two months and having heard the plans did it all last week. However yesterday we did it in seven different Sainsbury's locations simulataneously.....

Once all assembled with local press ready and waiting undercover GM protection officers went into the supermarket and placed warning stickers on dairy products. Having performed their mission undetected, two cows climbed a ladder on to the glass canopy above the Sainsbury's sign and opened a banner. With the sainsbury's logo in perfect position the slogan read 'Sainsbury's GM - Fed Dairy Untested, Unlabelled & in here', sending a clear message to customers entering the store. Meanwhile another banner was taken inside; held up by giant balloons, it was very shiny but only lasted a few seconds as the ceiling was too low and it was snatched by staff. As the balloons went up (and down!) the pantomine cow and giant maize plant made their entrance. Clambering ungracefully into a trolley the cow was driven around the supermaret by Maisy the GM maize who tried to convince shoppers how wonderful she was, and explained to them how she appeared in their milk through the cow. After around 10 minutes the cow was wheeled out by Maizy and Sainsbury's staff providing waiting photographers with pretty pictures, as if the dancing cows on the roof weren't enough!
During this time there was also a tannoy announcement made informing customers of the situation with Sainsbury's and G.M, stickering continued inside the building and leafletting outside. This achieved a highly positive response from customers with many supportive horn beeps and shouts from people leaving and entering the store. During this time one of the stickerers was forcibly ejected from the store by staff but made such a noise about it that they didn't bother again.
After about an hour and a half of the cows being on the canopy it was decided that they would come down, but when the ladder was sent for it was no longer there! At this time the main banner had already been passed down, so the police where informed that until the ladder was found we would have to continue (time for a very embarrassed manager here); after about ten minutes of searching and us saying we didn't need the fire brigade as we thought we had a ladder half of ours came back from somewhere in the depths of the store, but half wasn't enough, more mutterings about fire service and searching and the other part was found in the next door scrap yard! Success- the chilly cows could come down now.
No arrests at all on such a glorious successful day, only slightly marred by somebody chucking pints of milk at one of our entourage (who had left site after mentions that maybe they should be arrested for criminal damage) and was watching from the pavement, but on the whole a very lovely day out had by all but Sainsbury!
Climbing cows, pink cow and giant maize, banners, labelling and photographers. Sound familiar? Well maybe that's because Greenpeace, not content with just taking the 'Something Scary in the Dairy' slogan from the grassroots activists have actually been keeping an eye on us over the last two months and having heard the plans did it all last week. However yesterday we did it in seven different Sainsbury's locations simulataneously.....

Once all assembled with local press ready and waiting undercover GM protection officers went into the supermarket and placed warning stickers on dairy products. Having performed their mission undetected, two cows climbed a ladder on to the glass canopy above the Sainsbury's sign and opened a banner. With the sainsbury's logo in perfect position the slogan read 'Sainsbury's GM - Fed Dairy Untested, Unlabelled & in here', sending a clear message to customers entering the store. Meanwhile another banner was taken inside; held up by giant balloons, it was very shiny but only lasted a few seconds as the ceiling was too low and it was snatched by staff. As the balloons went up (and down!) the pantomine cow and giant maize plant made their entrance. Clambering ungracefully into a trolley the cow was driven around the supermaret by Maisy the GM maize who tried to convince shoppers how wonderful she was, and explained to them how she appeared in their milk through the cow. After around 10 minutes the cow was wheeled out by Maizy and Sainsbury's staff providing waiting photographers with pretty pictures, as if the dancing cows on the roof weren't enough!
During this time there was also a tannoy announcement made informing customers of the situation with Sainsbury's and G.M, stickering continued inside the building and leafletting outside. This achieved a highly positive response from customers with many supportive horn beeps and shouts from people leaving and entering the store. During this time one of the stickerers was forcibly ejected from the store by staff but made such a noise about it that they didn't bother again.
After about an hour and a half of the cows being on the canopy it was decided that they would come down, but when the ladder was sent for it was no longer there! At this time the main banner had already been passed down, so the police where informed that until the ladder was found we would have to continue (time for a very embarrassed manager here); after about ten minutes of searching and us saying we didn't need the fire brigade as we thought we had a ladder half of ours came back from somewhere in the depths of the store, but half wasn't enough, more mutterings about fire service and searching and the other part was found in the next door scrap yard! Success- the chilly cows could come down now.
No arrests at all on such a glorious successful day, only slightly marred by somebody chucking pints of milk at one of our entourage (who had left site after mentions that maybe they should be arrested for criminal damage) and was watching from the pavement, but on the whole a very lovely day out had by all but Sainsbury!