Police launch attack on animal rights campaigners

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http://www.arkangelweb.org/international/uk/20070504attackonar.php

 

 

 

 

 

U.K.

 

 

Police launch attack on animal rights campaigners

 

700 police officers were involved in dawn raids on 30 animal rights

campaigner’s houses across Britain this week.

 

On Tuesday 1st May police officers from 10 different police forces across

the UK and led by Kent and Hampshire police who coordinated the raids

arrested 32 people. Using the pretext of investigating criminal activity the

police raided homes not just in the UK but liaised with police forces on

mainland Europe as homes were raided both in the Netherlands and Belgium.

However, no arrests were made in these countries.

 

According to the police the raids come after a two-year investigation that

looked into attacks on scientists, businessmen and firms connected to

Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). Adrian Leppard, the Assistant Chief

Constable of Kent Police, who is leading the case said: " Animal rights

extremists have conducted sustained campaigns of harassment and intimidation

against the animal research industry, seeking to achieve their objectives by

creating a climate of fear " . Mr Leppard said that the arrests took place in

Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Greater London, Merseyside,

Worcestershire, Lancashire, Northumbria and Yorkshire.

 

Of the 32 people arrested at the time of writing this news story nine people

have been charged with conspiracy to blackmail or blackmail, whilst two,

Greg Avery, a founder member of the campaign group Stop Huntingdon Animal

Cruelty (SHAC), and his wife, Natasha are still being questioned, the police

having been granted a further 36 hours to question the two. Freshfields

Animal Rescue Centre in Merseyside was among the places raided. The centre,

which has been established for more than 25 years and takes in unwanted

animals from across the region - saw approx 50-60 police arrived at 5.30am

smashing their way through the front doors of the centre and in the process

releasing 4 dogs. Staff at the centre desperately tried to retrieve the dogs

but two of the dogs are still missing. Later on another dog was able to

escape due to the behaviour of the police, but has subsequently been found

by staff. The raid lasted 13 hours and no animals were allowed to be

cleaned, medicated or fed until after 7pm that night as they wouldn't let

staff onto the site. Reports from staff at the centre accuse the police of

being " aggressive " and " thuggish " even to the extent that they broke a

member of staff’s collar bone as he was trying to get to the farm animals.

 

Other reports coming into Arkangel are of a similar nature. In one raid

police smashed down front doors and as people emerged from their bedrooms

threw them face down onto the beds handcuffing them and leaving them lying

on the bed naked whilst officers ransacked the house, these tactics were

used despite the fact that the occupants of the house were not even

arrested. Those arrested ranged in age from late teens to late sixties.

 

HLS came into the media spotlight in 1989 when undercover video footage shot

by Sarah Kite of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV)

over a six month period exposed the animal abuse inside HLS for the first

time.

 

In 1997, Zoë Broughton worked undercover inside HLS in the UK for 9 weeks.

She filmed, with a hidden camera, workers punching, shaking and terrifying 4

month old beagle pups. The resulting footage screened on national TV saw the

suspension temporarily of Huntingdon’s licence to vivisect. However when the

media spotlight was no longer on HLS they were given back their licence. HLS

have a long track record of abusing animals and breaking the already weak

welfare laws protecting laboratory animals and this abuse isn’t just

confined to their UK research laboratory; in 1997 Michelle Rokke worked

inside Huntingdon’s US lab in New Jersey. She filmed monkeys being cut open

whilst they were still conscious, something exposed again recently in a 2006

report released by SHAC.

 

According to the SHAC report, nothing has changed and the exact same abuse

that made HLS a major target of animal rights campaigns all over the world

continues to take place daily today, despite the assurances and formal

statements made by HLS executives, including HLS's MD Brian Cass, and

business partners that conditions have improved at the testing facility and

the animals are well-treated.

 

In the report, one ex-worker, who worked in the dog units, states, " Some

dogs were not happy to be bled and they would struggle and not sit still.

The licence holder would pull them around by the scruff, shout at them, and

sometimes even used to pick the dog up off the chair by its scruff and have

it dangling whilst they shouted at it. It could be a very disturbing time. "

 

" I saw co-workers grab them by the scruff, shout and swear at them, swing

them by the scruff and slap them. I was told I was “too close” to my dogs

because when I carried them to and from procedures I would hold them tight

to me and cuddle and kiss them. "

Workers also reported abuse of employees that included favouritism, overly

long work days, denial of breaks and lunches, and being made to falsify

information regarding documentation of work times.

 

For more information on this report click on:

<http://www.shac.net/MISC/Inside_HLS.html>

http://www.shac.net/MISC/Inside_HLS.html