Animal rights extremists are finally discovering some opposition. Not from the government, whose planned amendments to the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill are likely to have no impact on the extremists, but from a sixteen year old boy and two Oxford academics.
Professor Tipu Aziz, a consultant neurosurgeon, and Professor John Stein, a neurophysiologist, addressed a rally in Oxford on Saturday to demonstrate support for the construction of a new laboratory. The rally was organised by Laurie Pycroft, a slightly geeky looking 16 year old, who founded Pro-Test group.
The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) have recently upped the level of violence and intimidation declaring that anyone in Oxford is a legitimate target.
The ALF has a history of intimidation and violence. As Davina would say, here are some of your best moments -
i) The Big Issue magazine announced that it would no longer publish advertisements for a major pharmaceutical research company because one of its vendors was attacked by an animal rights activist.
ii) Animal rights extremists desecrate the burial ground of 82-year-old Gladys Hammond. Police fear relatives will be next. Sources with the Animal Liberation Front refuse to condemn the macabre act
iii) Leapfrog Day Nurseries, a children's nursery has become the latest target of animal rights threats, forcing it to stop providing child care vouchers to parents working for the animal testing group Huntingdon Life Sciences.
iv) Animal rights activists have launched a fresh wave of attacks, targeting a senior pharmaceutical executive and an Oxford College. The ALF claimed responsibility yesterday for a device left outside the home of Paul Blackburn, the corporate controller of Britain's biggest pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline.
v) Animal rights activists visited the home of a senior pharmaceutical executive in Switzerland and slashed his car tyres because he is a customer of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). The Biteback website, used as a bulletin board by the ALF, says activists visited Mr Holdener's home and stripped his car of paint, slashed his tyres, painted the garage door and wrote across it in paint "drop HLS, animal killer, ALF".
vi) A family that breeds guinea pigs for medical research announced yesterday that it was to close its farm, Darley Oaks in Satffordshire, in a final attempt to get back the remains of a body that was dug up by animal rights extremists.
vii) Visit Bite Back (their website) for a taste of what a total bunch of nutters these people are. Bite Back conveniently sorts articles by the following categories; vandalism, arson, violence, prisoners, fire and theft. Take your pick.
This is what they have to say about companies that help build the research lab.
"Last week almost 100 letters were anonymously mailed out to companies who have in the past donated money to Oxford University. The letter warned that these companies had 1 week to pull the plug and announce that they will NEVER AGAIN send money to the university. They were warned that if they did not do this they would have their offices trashed and the homes of their directors, employees and/or trustees would be attacked. They were also advised that their details would be sent out over the internet to other animal rights activists. More than a week has passed and it has been noted that several organisations have made it public that they will not be funding the university in future. Any company who has not made an announcement can now expect full attention from the Animal Liberation Front. It's not going to be pretty."
Give Pro-Test your 100% support.
Update I ; Niki Shisler writes up the demo at Harry's Place
While you are certainly entitled to your opinion about the Animal Liberation Front I think you are being unfair in your condemnation of them. Most of the knowledge we have of what occurs in animal research facilities has been obtained through ALF actions or by people from other organizations that have gone undercover and infiltrated these labs.
ReplyDeleteThe level of violence committed by vivisectionsists on animals in these facilities are beyond anything that the ALF or any other group have ever engaged in. It is not the Animal Liberation Front that burns animals alive and leaves them to suffer without any treatment as researchers at the Shriners Hospitals do. The ALF are not the ones that bash the skulls of fully conscious primates to simulate the injuries received in automobile collisions. It is not the ALF that takes rabbits and sprays toxic compounds into their eyes. In addition to these abuses animals routinely have their limbs broken, have corrosive substances poured on their flesh and are subjected to any number of painful procedures, up to and including surgery, without any anesthetic. All of these procedures are regularly exposed by ALF actions as well as by employees and ex-employees of these research facilities. Much of what goes on behind the locked doors of these facilities has been documented either by photographs or video. These photographs and videos are widely available on the Internet.
The vivisection industry is a multi-billion dollar a year industry which regular contributes large sums of money to political parties in order to be able to continue operating. As for the police they regularly identify anyone who disagrees with the status quo and who dares to express their disagreement as a "subversive" or "terrorist". They know that by exagerating or even creating a "threat" they can easily get their funding increased.
It is also important to remember that in over 20 years of ALF actions there has never been a single fatality. The vivisectionists continually fabricate the supposed threat to themselves from the ALF and other animal rights groups in order to justify increasing security at their labs and to garner sympathy from the general public. Clearly it is to their advantage to make it as difficult as possible for the public to see what actually goes on behind the closed doors of their labs.
Orion
ReplyDeleteMost of the knowledge we have about diseases such as cancer occurs in animal research laboratories.
I used to work in a Cancer Research Laboratory where animals were used. The stories you describe are simply not true or are extremely rare incidents.
The people who staff these labs are poorly paid, humane scientists who are determined to minimise the suffering of the animals used.
The results of their work has benefitted millions around the world.
They are not activists, they are terrorists.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the previous poster; they are not "extremists", "activists" or "avenging angels". They are nothing more than terrorists, thugs and common criminals. They deliberately spread lies and misinformation about the vivisection industry, cause criminal damage and terrorise innocent people. If you disagree with a government's policy, you lobby the government, persuade people to vote against them and so forth. The fact that they have to resort to violence shows that they're in the minority of opinion.
ReplyDeleteAnimal activists are not terrorists, thugs or common criminals - thanks for putting us all in the same bracket.
ReplyDeleteI have been an animal activist since I was 11 years old when I became vegan. I am now 33 years old and wheras once I was in the minority, I am now in a majority group.
I was on the Speak Campaigns march in January and was astounded when the police stopped the protest.
Contrary to the stories printed in newspapers and shown on the television, the violence actually came from the police - not the protesters.
I was at the front of the march and saw exactly what happened and this confirmed what I had always believed in - money talks, so make the opposers look bad by stating to the press that they had 'resorted to violence'.
I do not believe that anyone should be pro animal testing - everyone should be looking for alternatives, even those that agree with vivisection.
It is not a practice that should be promoted and for Tony Blair to add his name to the list of those 'for' vivisection was wrong. He should not have gone completely the other way in retaliation.
Anonymous
ReplyDeleteHow does this poll http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/29/nanim29.xml
tally with your opinion that more and more people share your views?
Recent polls all point to an increasing intolerance of animal 'rights' groups and increasing support for animal testing.