kpickell
03-19-03, 07:04 AM
Plan to rein in animal rights protesters
FT.com 3/18/03
Violent protests by animal rights activists will be tackled under new laws planned by the government.
The Home Office is understood to be considering tightening the laws further on protests to stop executives and researchers being harassed at their homes.
Bob Ainsworth, a Home Office minister, has held meetings with groups representing biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and scientists to discuss gaps in legislation, the Financial Times has learnt.
Last month, the BioIndustry Association called for measures, based on those already used to prosecute football hooligans, to outlaw any protests aimed at causing legitimate businesses to cease trading - the stated aim of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, a small but well-funded group of anti-vivisectionists.
The Home Office is understood to have ruled out the possibility of unified legislation against animal rights protesters. However, officials denied it was being complacent. "Far from rejecting calls for a further strengthening of the law, we are in discussion with the scientific community and the police to see what more needs to be done," the Home Office said.
A campaign of intimidation orchestrated by Shac has come close to forcing Huntingdon Life Sciences, a drug and chemical testing company, out of business. The government amended the criminal justice and police bill last year. It also tightened up laws on violent protests.
The police and courts have found it difficult to prove a link between the people running Shac and the violent protesters. Shac said that the previous tightening of laws against demonstrations outside individuals' homes had done little to hinder its activities.
There were 62 home visits by activists to directors or employees of companies with links to animal testing in the last quarter of 2002 and 20,000 e-mails, phone calls or text messages w ere received, according to the BioIndustry Association.
Aisling Burnand, chief executive of the BIA, said the legal system was struggling to deal with a group of thugs that publicly denounced violence but in reality was at the centre of a campaign of sinister intimidation. "We need better co-ordination of policing and better co-ordination with the Crown Prosecution Service. We must be able to get convictions," she said.
The three principal co- ordinators of Shac - Greg Avery, Natasha Avery and Heather James - were jailed two years ago for inciting a public nuisance and inciting criminal damage.
Shac has revealed plans to target Japanese chemical companies in an expansion of its campaign against Huntingdon's customers. Shac, which has fought a successful campaign of intimidation against the company's bankers, marketmakers, insurers and auditors in the US and UK, says it has obtained a list of hundreds of drug and chemical testing contracts from a company insider. And in a sign that Shac is preparing to widen its campaign to include other drug-testing companies, it claims to have infiltrated an activist into Covance, a US-listed contract research organisation.
After a successful campaign against Huntingdon's US backers, Shac claims to have raised £20,000 from supporters, specifically to fund the Japanese assault.
FT.com 3/18/03
Violent protests by animal rights activists will be tackled under new laws planned by the government.
The Home Office is understood to be considering tightening the laws further on protests to stop executives and researchers being harassed at their homes.
Bob Ainsworth, a Home Office minister, has held meetings with groups representing biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and scientists to discuss gaps in legislation, the Financial Times has learnt.
Last month, the BioIndustry Association called for measures, based on those already used to prosecute football hooligans, to outlaw any protests aimed at causing legitimate businesses to cease trading - the stated aim of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, a small but well-funded group of anti-vivisectionists.
The Home Office is understood to have ruled out the possibility of unified legislation against animal rights protesters. However, officials denied it was being complacent. "Far from rejecting calls for a further strengthening of the law, we are in discussion with the scientific community and the police to see what more needs to be done," the Home Office said.
A campaign of intimidation orchestrated by Shac has come close to forcing Huntingdon Life Sciences, a drug and chemical testing company, out of business. The government amended the criminal justice and police bill last year. It also tightened up laws on violent protests.
The police and courts have found it difficult to prove a link between the people running Shac and the violent protesters. Shac said that the previous tightening of laws against demonstrations outside individuals' homes had done little to hinder its activities.
There were 62 home visits by activists to directors or employees of companies with links to animal testing in the last quarter of 2002 and 20,000 e-mails, phone calls or text messages w ere received, according to the BioIndustry Association.
Aisling Burnand, chief executive of the BIA, said the legal system was struggling to deal with a group of thugs that publicly denounced violence but in reality was at the centre of a campaign of sinister intimidation. "We need better co-ordination of policing and better co-ordination with the Crown Prosecution Service. We must be able to get convictions," she said.
The three principal co- ordinators of Shac - Greg Avery, Natasha Avery and Heather James - were jailed two years ago for inciting a public nuisance and inciting criminal damage.
Shac has revealed plans to target Japanese chemical companies in an expansion of its campaign against Huntingdon's customers. Shac, which has fought a successful campaign of intimidation against the company's bankers, marketmakers, insurers and auditors in the US and UK, says it has obtained a list of hundreds of drug and chemical testing contracts from a company insider. And in a sign that Shac is preparing to widen its campaign to include other drug-testing companies, it claims to have infiltrated an activist into Covance, a US-listed contract research organisation.
After a successful campaign against Huntingdon's US backers, Shac claims to have raised £20,000 from supporters, specifically to fund the Japanese assault.