Players playing the second quarter of Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Clippers' recent NBA play-in game had to take an unexpected break when an animal rights activist tried to glue herself to the court.
The sticky situation occurred at the Target Center in Minneapolis last night, 13 April.
It all went down with around three and a half minutes of second quarter play left, as the Timberwolves trailed 45-38. As players gathered round the hoop at one end of the court, it seemed as if a woman had fallen down in the dead ball zone.
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However, as security rushed around her it turned out she was actually trying to keep herself there permanently – with images and footage suggesting she was trying to glue herself to the ground in protest.
This was something confirmed later by an animal activist group of which the woman was a member. Confirming that the protester's name was Alicia Santurio, activist organization Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) addressed the protest and detailed the reasoning behind it in a statement.
“Tuesday morning’s release of troubling footage from Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor’s factory egg farm has been followed up with a Tuesday evening protest broadcast to a national TV audience,” they wrote, in reference to Rembrandt Enterprises killing millions of chickens in response to an avian influenza outbreak.
“A woman, Alicia Santurio, made her way onto the court during the second quarter of the game and tried to glue herself to the floor under the basket," it continued.
"Her shirt displayed the message ‘GLEN TAYLOR ROASTS ANIMALS ALIVE’ before security personnel pulled her away. Minutes later, TV commentator Kevin Harlan spoke to the national television audience, saying ‘We’ve been told it was a protest…she glued herself'.”
The break in play clearly energised the Timberwolves who pulled themselves back over the remainder of the game to run out 109-104 winners on the night to book their position in the NBA end of season playoffs.
Meanwhile, the protest itself gained support on Twitter, with one user writing: "Fabulous job, Alicia!!!! What is happening is atrocious and must be stopped."
Santurio herself also mentioned the incident on her own account, posting: "I superglued down to the basketball court to bring attention to the mass killing of chickens at glen taylors factory farm using vsd #Gluegirl."
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Topics: Animal Cruelty, Basketball, NBA, Sport
Simon Catling