ACTIVISTS decked out as genetically engineered monsters took to the streets
of New York and Washington DC on Halloween to protest against what they call
鈥淔谤补苍办别苍蝉肠颈别苍肠别鈥�.
A four-metre-tall puppet of a mad scientist stalked the streets of
New York鈥檚 Greenwich Village during the famous night-time Halloween Parade. The
grimacing giant, created by the Campaign for Responsible Transplantation, wore a
dollar-sign tie clip and clutched a model of a pig-human hybrid. A dozen 鈥渉ybrid
attendants鈥� wearing pig snouts danced around with signs warning that
xenotransplantation could transfer animal viruses to humans, unleashing
AIDS-like epidemics.
Alix Fano, director of the campaign, says her usual work as a policy analyst
left her longing for a more dynamic way to communicate her concerns about
animal-to-human transplants. Halloween costumes seemed appropriate because 鈥渋t鈥檚
a very ghoulish technology, in our opinion鈥�, she says. Her group handed out
thousands of fliers to onlookers, and millions more watched the parade on
national television.
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Other activists were similarly inspired. In Washington DC, Friends of the
Earth marched to a Safeway grocery store wearing Frankenstein masks and a large
costume made for the occasion.
鈥淲e have this creature we made that we call the Gene Beast,鈥� says Mark
Whiteis-Helm, a member of the group. 鈥淗e has a strawberry as a head with a fish
coming through it.鈥� The monster symbolises the genetically modified strawberries
that contain a gene for an antifreeze protein taken from the Arctic flounder.