PETA-linked activist who glitter bombed Harvard president pleads not guilty
An animal rights protester who dumped glitter on Harvard Interim President Alan Garber on June 3 has reportedly pleaded not guilty to three felony charges.
An animal rights protester who dumped glitter on Harvard Interim President Alan Garber on June 3 has reportedly pleaded not guilty to three felony charges.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) says it is responsible for Brittany Drake’s actions, who was charged with assault upon an elderly person and two counts of destruction of property after dumping glitter on the 69-year-old Garber on May 31, per The Harvard Crimson.
The protester can be heard saying “For the baby monkeys!” as she pours the glitter over Garber’s head.
In the video, Garber responds, “I hope that Harvard will always continue to be a place where free speech thrives.” Soon after, Drake was charged in the Cambridge District Court in Massachusetts.
“For the baby monkeys!”
An animal rights activist was arrested after dumping glitter on Harvard President Alan Garber as he began his Alumni Day address.
He responds by saying, “I hope that Harvard will always continue to be a place where free speech continues to thrive.” pic.twitter.com/yQXlBWO1DT— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) June 1, 2024
Garber was giving the president’s address at Harvard Alumni Day.
[RELATED: Animals are victims of ‘human supremacy,’ growing student organization claims]
Alka Chandna, the vice president for Laboratory Investigations Cases at PETA, told Campus Reform in an email that the organization would continue to stand by Drake. “PETA will support Ms. Drake through the ridiculous felony charges,” Chandna said, “which were a complete reversal from Interim President Garber’s initial response to being sprinkled with glitter.”
A May 31 PETA press release says that the glitter bombing is part of the organization’s campaign against Margaret Livingstone, a Harvard researcher.
“While President Garber and his fellow alums sip prosecco and pat each other on the back, baby monkeys are trapped in a living hell in Margaret Livingstone’s laboratory,” PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo said in the press release. “PETA calls on Garber to listen to the scientific consensus, shut down this abhorrent lab, and invest in animal-free research that actually helps humans.”
PETA started a petition in 2022 calling for Livingstone’s lab to be shut down.
Harvard Medical School has publicly denied PETA’s claims about Livingstone’s research, calling PETA’s content “misleading and [containing] factual inaccuracies.”
In a further statement to The Crimson about the glitter bombing, Guillermo challenged the charges against Drake.
“A young woman who pours glitter on someone to protest cruelty to animals can’t possibly be considered a felon,” she said, “but Harvard President Garber, who allows infant monkeys to be torn from their mothers, forced to wear vision-distorting goggles or subjected to a strobe light effect for the first 18 months of life is committing a crime against living beings, a true assault, for which he should be jailed.”
Campus Reform contacted Garber’s office for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
