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July 16 (UPI) -- The environmentalist group Futuro Vegetal said Sunday that its members had vandalized the $300 million superyacht owned by Walmart heir Nancy Walton Laurie in Spain on Saturday. Futuro Vegetal said the protest action capped a campaign called by another activist group, Extinction Rebellion Ibiza, which demanded a ban on private jets and an end to luxury emissions.
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"The only reason we continue to maintain an economic system that leads us to eco-social collapse is to sustain the privileges of this small, privileged class. The mega-rich live off the suffering of others," Futuro Vegetal said in its statement translated from Spanish.
"It is the people at the top of the social pyramid who put all life on the planet at their service, forcing us to work to sustain their system, exploiting animals and destroying the territory no matter how much suffering and death it implies."
Protesters could be seen holding signs that read "You Consume Others Suffer" in front of the yacht, doused in red paint from a fire extinguisher, an apparent symbol of global warming.
"The climate crisis means endless suffering and horror for all the inhabitants of the planet. Neither all the repression nor the outcome of any electoral process is going to stop our determination to mitigate the impact of the Climate Crisis," the statement read. "Our lives are at stake."
In another statement, the group said two protesters -- identified as Marina and Bilbo -- were still detained by police and expected to appear in court and be released Monday at noon.
Nancy is the youngest daughter of James "Bud" Walton, who cofounded Walmart with his brother. Sam. She inherited half of her father's stake in the company in 1995 and is listed as #304 on the Bloomberg Billionaire Index with a net worth of $7.7 billion as of Sunday afternoon.
According to Yacht Bible, her luxury ship KAOS is 361 feet and weighs 4,523 tons. It was the largest yacht ever built in the Netherlands when it was launched in 2017.
