The East Coast Tour is OFFICIAL!
We will be back on the road in June of 2013 to spread the word about Vivisection and pressure labs and facilities up the East Coast to give up this brutal science! We are currently fundraising for a van, gas, and to print out signs and literature for the tour! Every little bit helps us get out there and make this next tour EVEN BIGGER AND BETTER THAN THE FIRST!

Please go to http://www.indiegogo.com/OpenTheCagesTour to read all about the East Coast Tour and to pitch in! There are perks of course! Additionally, if you want to help with the planning of the tour get at our tour director Mike – Mike@openthecagestour.com  Watch this space and our Facebook for updates on the East Coast stops and please tell your friends!

By the time we got to vancouver were were tired. I mean, really, really tired. We had found our way from Victoria to Vancouver with all of our gear in tow, and even found our good friend standing at a bus stop on the island (oddly) so we had another companion for the last leg of the trip. The ferry ride was beautiful, and the weather was milder than the ride over to the island was so we got to spend some time taking turns and going up to the top deck. Epic.

When we were finally to the city, we basically had to go straight to the Library and start setting up. Our screening was at the Vancouver Public Library main branch downtown, and was graciously set up for us by the good folks at Liberation BC! They had booked the space, got all the gear we needed and had been promoting the event for months, so we were really excited for the night! This would also be the last screening of MTD for a few months, so we were all pretty sentimental about it.

The screening was very well attended by vancouver activist as well as community members. the room was full of people who sincerely care for the plight of animals in labs, and had come to discuss with us as much as they had come to hear what the film, as well as the film’s crew, and the tour directors had to say. The experience was humbling. People were so genuinely interested in ending the suffering of these animals. We actually had so many people stay to discuss things with us that we had to cut people short as the library needed to close and the janitor wanted to get his cleaning done (a first for the tour!) We also made many valuable connections between some great groups who sent members to talk with us. We expect to do work with Liberation BC and with The Black Pawprint Collective in the future! Sincerest and most humble thanks to everyone who attended. It meant a lot to us that so many people came to our last screening of the tour!

There was no demonstation scheduled for Vancouver, as we could not overcome some organizational challenges, but what we lacked in a boisterous protest we made up for with an even more boisterous music event! The night was stacked with bands from all different sounds. We had a vegan grindcore band wth messages about fur, factory farmed meat, vivisection and other AR related lyrics; a straightedge vegan feminist powerviolence band (who were called Rape Revenge, and are incredible. We highly recommend checking them out if you get the chance to) in addition to a rock band, an anarchist poetry reading, Mike’s amazing folk punk music (complete with sing-along) and of course the electronic loop pedal rap stylings of Grabageface!

The whole night was a huge success. By the time we finished the evening we were all starving, so we went for 24 hour Thai food with our wonderful host, and then crashed hard at her and her partner’s house watching Airheads. It was the best end to the tour possible. The next day we made a stop at Nice Shoes to visit with friends, then got vegan pizza and hit the airport.

Thank you so much West Coast. We love you so much. This tour was life-changing and positive almost without exception. We learned what an incredible community we have, and how many people really care about animals in labs. We made so many new amazing friends and ate so much amazing food… if there had been no companion animals and/or jobs and/or families to return to we might have just kept touring forever. Thanks again for having us. We’ll see you all again real soon. In the meantime keep holding it down like you do.

xoxo

The Open The Cages Team

We had a down day the first afternoon we were all in Victoria so we spent it making chocolate Zucchini cookies for our awesome hosts! We also had an awesome midnight swim at a totally deserted lake just outside of the city, so by the time the screening came around we were all sufficiently rested up. AND we had a Sarah Kramer spotting!

The screening was extremely successful with the whole space packed right to the back. We had lots of people come out who had not been to the Camas space before, and people expressed to us that they were glad to know that it existed in their community as a resource. The space had their volunteers bake a whole bunch of treats to sell, and the vegan cupcakes they had were straight up some of the best ever. After an extended Q and A we packed up the space and went back to our friend’s spot for the night.

The next day was the music show. Mike had discovered a crack in his guitar’s headstock so after trying to get it repaired without luck we had to find one for him to borrow. After a day of running around we arrived at Camas for the music event. The evening was stacked with storytellers, poets, banjo players and as usual Mike XVX and Karol/Garbageface  to close out the night.

Victoria was an awesome time. We had all found a little slice of paradise! It was a perfect spot to have had our second last show. After a long bus and ferry ride (and watching seals playing all along the coast!) we made it tired and weighed down with gear to Vancouver.

We began with a workshop which people sort of trickled in for. By the time the film began almost every chair was full! About 10 minutes in people were still arriving and starting to fill in all the remaining space. OTC Team members at one point made the decision to go outside for the film so that the space we were occupying would be free for people who seemed to be streaming in steadily even after the film had been running! We were so moved by the response! As the screening came to an end we had a really strong Q and A session, talked a bit about the demo at the UW Blue Building the next day, and then all spread out to talk with folks one-on-one. As we were starting to wrap up we heard a huge commotion outside and a massive solidarity rally marched past in support of the victims of police violence in California! Some of our team ended up joining in the march while the rest of us held down the fort with all our gear. What a politically active evening we stumbled upon!

After the screening was done we settled into our friend’s place to crash for the night. He was kind enough to bake us all gluten free vegan cookies! Best host ever! We were up bright and early to prepare for the UW protest at the blue building the next morning. We loaded up the van for it’s last official tour event and headed over in the chimp masks, the lab suits and with the megaphones all charged up with fresh batteries. The Blue Building is a really unique facility as it has no distinguishing characteristics that would tip the public off to what goes on inside… but 600 primates are presently being tested on inside. The building itself touches the sidewalk and there are windows that face the street. The intercoms are all accessible from the street and there are actually apartment buildings and houses that touch/share walls with the facility itself.

We arrived with the full siren treatment as usual, with an announcement that we had been sent to inform them that the animals were clear to be released into our custody today and that the police would be there shortly to help us escort the animals to safety. We asked the staff to comply and open the cages and bring the animals to the gate so that we may transport them to safety. All of this was standard run for us, except that across the street from the facility was an artscape and park that presently had a big outdoor yoga class in progress. They were just wrapping up with some downward dogs when we arrived on the scene, and many of the students in the class came over to see what the commotion was about. Many of them asked us to please start 15 minutes later next time so that we don’t interrupt their yoga… we told them we’d be happy to do so if they’d be willing to join the protest. ha! Most of the folks who talked to us were shocked to learn that the blue building was a testing facility, and upon learning so they took literature.

The protest was a really successful one as we got a lot of literature onto cars and into the hands of residents who live near the facility who were horrified and said they’d be sure to complain and support our cause. Sadly the demonstration did not end as pleasantly as it started. An individual who had come out to help us made some unfortunate choices in language towards some of our tour mates, insulted them while they were offering help and then later when we attempted to discuss with them their use of oppressive language (the OTC Tour operates with a very strict safer-space policy and very strongly opposes the use of any and all oppressive language, slurs, or the disrespect of other activists based on their physical appearance, gender or race) the individual who had used the language became closed-off to constructive dialogue and aggressive towards another team member. We have zero tolerance for this type of behaviour, and so we called the demo half an hour early so as not to force others to remain in this situation longer than necessary, and to deprive the offending party any further audience.

** We will be posting materials about safer spaces, oppressive language, intersctionality of struggles/oppressions in the near future as it is a very serious issue to us and many other activists when someone makes choices that alienate or oppress people that are fighting alongside them. Had we not been so close to the end of the scheduled time period we would have asked the other party to leave. We encourage others to speak up when someone in the community is acting out of line. Strong communities are inclusive, weak communities are exclusive. **

After the demonstration had wrapped we headed over for a massive post-demo lunch at Wayward where we took up an entire wall of the restaurant with our tables all pushed together banquet style. It was our last communal meal and a goodbye to a few of the American activists that wouldn’t be crossing into Canada. We hugged the van goodbye, packed our things into carry bags, shed some tears, took some pictures, promised not to lose touch after graduation… you know the drill… and then two of us hauled a heroic amount of stuff onto an overnight bus to Vancouver, and two other team members drove the van back to it’s home in Portland. We all met up again after only minor border trouble in BEAUTIFUL VICTORIA BC!!!!!

Thank you to everyone who came to an american tour date! We love you all and you have inspired us to keep fighting and keep these tours going! Next up: CANADA!

xo
The OTC Team

Where to begin with Portland?! If you have never been, Portland is like this super beautiful city nestled amidst all the natural beauty of northern Oregon, and with the most delicious vegan food you’ve ever had around every corner! We visited Food Fight Grocery at least 4 or 5 times during our visit (an all vegan grocery store that is FULL of some of the most awesome hard to find vegan goodies around, plus all of your old favourites too! It was like a road snack haven!) as well as the rest of the VEGAN MINI MALL and our favourite spot, The Red and Black Cafe!

First up was the music event! We were all so happy to have arrived in Portland that we set up camp at the R&B for most of the afternoon. From our table we hosted a number of arm wrestling matches between tour mates, ate TONS of delicious vegan nachos, and set off on two separate missions to the Because We Must warehouse for shirts and other cool vegan swag! I think some folks even made the treck to Voodoo Donuts for a goodie box of vegan pastries!

Around 7PM things got started, first up was Garbageface! Many of the crust punks that had come for the other two acts were not quite sure what to make of the whole thing, but by the end most were won over! (Raining Blood has that effect on people.) Mike was on his home turf so a lot of people had turned up to see him play. As a regular performer at the R&B a lot of people knew the sing along parts and were requesting songs! As usual the big finish went over really well with the crowd. Closing out the night was Sina Youssefzadeh who is another Portland local musician! Sina’s music was AWESOME!! He plays with so much passion and his songs come from his heart (and you can tell!) Between songs while repairing some broken strings, the crowd shared all the anarchist, vegan, punk and working class jokes that they knew. It was so much fun. We were really feeling the drag of the tour by that point, but Portland spruced us right up!

The next day we had our demo at the ONPRC (the Oregon National Primate Research Center), an infamous facility that is oddly buffered by an entire suburb of family homes. The entire facility is surrounded by families and regular people who have no idea the cruelty that happens in their literal backyards. We were there regardless, disrupting their quiet streets to expose the horrible atrocities that occur so near to them. We were met with an outrageous police response considering what we were there to do. They had brought a full mobile police station to the site, as well as undercovers and two separate jurisdictions of officers. With cops come media though; a few television stations turned up to talk to us about the tour and the protest. We also got a lot of information out to the people who lived in the area and many expressed their support. After occupying 6 corners at once leading into and out of the facility, as well as operating all 3 microphones, and having about 20-30 people overall show up (not bad considering we needed to carpool out there!) we called the demo successful and returned back to the city to prepare for the screening.

We had a few days off in Portland as well as the regular music, demo, and screening events–but we weren’t on vacation–Portland was the big one for the film. The good folks at Food Fight had sprung and rented us the Hollywood Theatre to show Maximum Tolerated Dose for the first time EVER on a big screen, in a real movie theatre, WITH VEGAN POPCORN! To say that we were excited would be an understatement. I think we all had a tiny freak out when we saw the name on the sign from across the street.

The theatre was almost full by the time the film began. Food Fight as well as a number of other businesses in Portland (Herbivore, Scapegoat Tattoo, and more) had been supportive of the tour and promoting the screening for months! We were so moved by the turnout! After the screening we had a round of Q and A which actually spilled out into the lobby where it was all hands on deck answering questions, meeting folks and selling t-shirts (a few of which are still available if you missed out!)

After that we were all pretty bushed, so we went back to the home of our gracious host (who was also on tour with us for some dates) watched Dumb and Dumber, and called it a night.

After a day off at Multnomah Falls and Columbia gorge to swim, we were sufficiently well rested and ready to roll onward to our last US stop of the tour, Seattle. (and Wayward. Did I mention we were going to eat at Wayward? We were stoked for Wayward…)

Until next time!
The OTC Team

Before our dates we had 2 days off which we mostly spent swimming in lake Tahoe, hanging around in downtown reno, eating thai food and a really special afternoon at Cock-a-doodle-moo Farm Animal Sanctuary (where we ate enough watermelon and chili to be full for DAYS!!) Our gracious hosts introduced us to all their beautiful animal companions and told us their individual stories, and we met two of the BIGGEST Turkey’s any of us had ever seen!!

Our connection with the vegan community in Reno happened in the weirdest of ways. It started with a tweet just asking for some assistance with the tour and out of nowhere comes Sara… She hooked us up with EVERYTHING we needed for the date! She single handedly started carrying the torch, printing flyers, spamming instigram and twitter with OTC event info.. we were excited to see what would be waiting for us and we were SO HAPPY with what we found!

The screening was at an amazing warehouse which was temporarily converted into a make-shift movie theatre complete with converted shopping carts into chairs and a pig named Mouse who lived out back and was happy to greet all of us! The space was amazing and we felt so fortunate to have such an awesome DIY-friendly host for the screening.

The room was about 60% full when we began but more people streamed in as time went on and eventually we ended up with almost a full house. After there was a lot of great Q and A which we did our best to answer despite being completely wiped out from our day in the desert.

The next morning we got up and went over to the Charles River Facility which is a notorious laboratory with an unbelievable  record for animal cruelty. In this facility there was a heating malfunction that cooked a number of primates to death while they were trapped and had no way to escape. As well, a primate was boiled alive when the cage they were being held in went through an industrial washer without anyone checking to ensure it was empty first. The facility employes a large number of people in the Reno area, and we timed our protest so we would be at the front gates when many of them left on their lunch breaks and came in for shift changes.

The Reno Vegans group was instrumental in getting folks to come out! (Especially Sara who helped us tremendously with organizing.) We also met some of the most eager to help and tireless activists we have encountered yet! Geofrey was also with us at every turn ensuring that all our needs were met, and generously helped us with costs and support. (Thank you both so much!)

Because of this strong local base the demo was one of the strongest we have done all tour! We had over 30 people out, some in block, some families, lots of community members who have been protesting for years, and some people who were at the facility gates for the very first time! We had all 3 bullhorns going again, and were able to get quite a bit of attention from inside. We even had one fellow stand on the lawn and perch in his truck to film all of us (no need to hide sir, we’re there to talk to people, especially people on the inside of the fence like yourself) in addition to the attention from the inside we also received the best media of the tour so far! A news person from the local station filmed extensively and then did an entire segment abou the protest on the 5PM news! They mentioned the tour, our dates, the primates who were killed inside, and of course that Charles River had no comment on our being in town. By the 11PM segment we assume pressure from the facility had caused the story to mostly be killed, as when we watched it again it was gutted of all it’s critical content, any mention of animal abuse, and switched up clips from local activists with ones that contained generic statements about animal testing being less effective than it is perceived to be. We were disappointed but still pleased that the original broadcast had been so complete!

And what tour stop would be complete without some music to help make us all feel better about this fight, and to bring us all in as a community? The show that evening was at Java Jungle and just Garbageface and Mike XvX were on the bill for the evening. Karol was able to amp everyone up sufficiently by  using the entire room, climbing the tables and even going out into the street at one point! Everyone seemed really engaged, even people who had just stopped in for a coffee and found themselves inches away from a rapper intent on including them in his set. Mike played right after to the warmed up room with everyone really appreciating his lyrics about HLS and his stories about rescued animals like Natalie especially. By the time he closed out the night with a song most of us know by now there was no containing the room. The tour folks especially carried a massive sing along with him and got everyone else in the coffee shop to chime in at the appropriate parts as well as cheer and clap immensely at the end. We went back to where we were laying our heads that night with full hearts and a few delicious vegan desserts to finish off, as well as lots of warm fuzzies about the people in Reno. We look forward to seeing what all of our new friends accomplish in the weeks, months and years to come! The AR scene there is really unique, young and energized and we could not be happier to have met everyone there.

Keep up the awesome work Reno! OTC loves you!
and to Charles River: WE WILL NEVER BACK DOWN UNTIL YOU STOP THE KILLING!
xoxo
The OTC Team

The next day was a really loud and energized demonstration at the gates of the primate facility! Within minutes of us arriving in our van there were 3-4 police cruisers flanking the gates, the road and also following us to where we turned around before finding a place to park. We had not yet experienced police who were so interested before we had even got out of the van! The Davis protest had been the most extensively covered by media to date, with 4 television crews, as well as print media and bloggers on site, it became clear that this was going to be one of those  ”big impact” afternoons! Furthering our reach, SAEN had issued a letter in conjunction with a formal complaint they had filed against UC Davis after a whistleblower inside had come forward with information about specific violations within the facility (a primate that had been hung to death by a bungie cord left in their cage, a primate that had died and was left to rot in their cage until maggots were crawling out of their corpse) which the media was also very interested in.

We had all 3 bullhorns out, and all the primate masks, as well as a number of local activists who brought their own signs. We got loud, we got noticed and we got people pumped up! The folks who came out were extremely passionate about animals and we are sure there will be sustained pressure on that facility until it is closed FOR GOOD!

HEY DAVIS WHAT DO YOU SAY / HOW MANY PRIMATES HAVE YOU KILLED TODAY?
See you in Reno!!

<3 The OTC Team!

This was by far our best attended screening and the crowd was super responsive! The Q and A went on for almost half an hour, and we were asked questions that no one had asked throughout all our previous dates. We sold a lot of posters and t-shirts and everyone was so incredibly friendly. We were so thankful to have made it to such a lovely spot.

The next day after getting some good vegan grub downtown and taking some pretty sweet van-naps, we got ready for the music event. Not as well attended as the screening, the music event has a small crowd of pumped locals who came out. People were so kind to us, one person even brought us home-baked vegan cookies with a hand-drawn card (that featured monkeys and bunnies and other typical lab animals!) everyone devoured the cookies and we felt the love for sure.

There was no demonstration in Oakland due to schedule constraints, but the activists there are fully capable of holding it down regardless, so we look forward to hearing about what they get up to! After saying goodbye to a number of new friends and some warm hugs and a restocking of vegan snacks for the road we were on our way to Sacremento/Davis!

If you came to the screening or to the music event (or if you were the person who baked us cookies!!) THANK YOU! We loved our time in Oakland and we were so stoked to have spent two awesome days kicking it in your city.

xoxo
The OTC Team

Where do we even begin? We rolled into town exhausted from the demo in riverside into the beautiful home of some friends who had agreed to host the screening for us. We set up our table and our various merch and literature, our hosts popped some popcorn with vegan butter and we all settled in to watch the film at a 5PM and 7PM screening. Both shows had almost full-houses. At the end activists from the community asked questions pertaining to their own groups and actions, as well as asked how they could better fight back against the things they had just witnessed. We were sad to have to cut the Q and A short! Everyone was so energized and enthusiastic, we really felt a wellspring of support for both the tour and for the animals.

The next day there were already two protests that were  scheduled for the LA area, one targeting UCLA and another against the Ringling Bros Circus, so we decided rather than add a 3rd event to the mix that we would just encourage people at the screening to get in touch with the local organizers and attend their events. (Which was okay by us as some of us had completely lost our voices from the last two protests, and the rest of us were thoroughly sleep deprived so we were happy to spend Saturday sleeping in.)

Saturday we spent the afternoon sampling some of the incredible vegan food in LA and Hollywood, as well as preparing for the MASSIVE music event we had planned for the evening. Around 5:00 we went over to South Central to the truly beautiful community space that had offered to host our event. We were expecting a huge turnout  since the facebook event has over 150 people RSVP’d as coming!

We would write about each band but by the time the evening wrapped up after midnight over 10 different bands had played. So we’ll just include a sampling of pictures rather than talk about each act specifically.

At the end of the night we had sold more shirts, handed out more zines, high fived and hugged more people than any other tour stop. Our hosts were INCREDIBLE and made vegan tacos and bbq’d corn for people who were at the event, as well as played music between sets that was amazing! We felt so well-cared-for. South Central did it right!!! All of us remain totally overwhelmed and blown-away by the whole event, the hospitality of our hosts, the receptiveness of the audience and the HUGE turnout of 100+ people.

The next morning we got up bright and early and started the long treck to Oakland, tired but totally content, we said goodbye to LA.

Thanks so much if you came out to any of the events, spread the word or showed us love or support in any way.

LOVE AND SOLIDARITY, The OTC Team.