Meet the Animal Rebellion ‘milk pour’ protesters you’ve been seeing all over Twitter

One of them ‘had a nap and read Horrible Histories’ in jail

2 years ago

You’ll have seen it dominating your Twitter timeline over the weekend and, to be honest, you probably have 101 opinions about it. On Saturday (15th October), animal rights group Animal Rebellion staged a nationwide “milk-pour” in different high-end food shops across the UK.

Protestors in an Edinburgh Waitrose were the first to go viral, uniting Union Jack Twitter and… well, everyone else, alike. Young volunteers were seen opening bottles of milk and pouring them all over the floor, prompting people to raise questions about food waste and making more work for minimum-wage staff during the cost of living crisis.

Milk Pours are currently happening across the UK. All are concerned individuals calling on the government to give us a livable future, a #PlantBasedFuture

Here’s the latest milk pour happening in Edinburgh @waitrose pic.twitter.com/mawKIylEmI

— Animal Rebellion (@RebelsAnimal) October 15, 2022

These organised milk-pours also happened in London’s Harrods, Fortnum and Mason and Selfridges; as well as different Waitrose, Whole Foods and M&S stores around the country.

While Animal Rebellion has chosen to keep the identities of their volunteers anonymous, two of the demonstration’s organisers have since spoken out about its motives. Here’s everything you need to know about them:

Skylar Sharples

Photo via Twitter

Skylar was among the Animal Rebellion protestors pouring milk in Harrods. They stood at the front of a meat counter and emptied glass bottles of milk onto the floor, before being escorted out. They later told the Daily Mail: “Supporters of Animal Rebellion are back acting because Liz Truss and Ranil Jayawardena (Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) are again deciding to ignore calls to start building a better future.”

The activist is actually a Uni of Sussex grad, having finished their BA in International Development with a first in 2020. Before this, they actually *founded* the Sussex branch of Extinction Rebellion, volunteered for Greenpeace, and worked in Outreach for The Humane League.

Robert Gordon

Photo via LBC

Robert Gordon has been a vocal orchestrator and supporter of the nationwide milk-pouring. A hugely active member of Animal Rebellion, Robert was actually arrested several times just after graduating from Uni of York, with a degree in Politics and International Relations.

In 2021, he was arrested at McDonald’s Leicester Square for carrying out a “sleep-in” – a demonstration where protestors pitched tents outside the door. He was taken into custody for trespassing and spent five hours “napping and reading Horrible Histories”.

The volunteer has been incredibly open about his privilege in the past – citing his upbringing as one of the reasons the police haven’t treated him harshly. “I am fortunate that owing to my privileges as a well-spoken, straight white male my arrest experience was relatively pleasant… My mum used to be a criminal lawyer and regularly talks about instances of injustice and police brutality so she was more concerned for me but I assured her I was fine,” he wrote in a blog post.