I’m against cruelty to animals. But even more I’m against cruelty to human beings and some of the actions taken by animal rights activists appear to me to have involved this. However there does appear to be a great deal of demonisation going on in this area resulting in heavy-handed policing and some draconian sentencing by judges. And of course, much of what you read about animal rights activists (and much else) in the papers or even hear on the BBC is simply sensationalist fabrication, usually around a very small and far less dramatic kernel of fact.
It would however be hard to exaggerate some of the cruelty that does go in in testing chemicals on animals and in intensive food farming in this country and in fur farms abroad. We should have adequate legislation on animal welfare and it should be much more rigorously enforced. But I feel much more inclined to support things like the RSPCA‘s ‘Rooting for Pigs‘ campaign (and eat bacon from pigs that are well-cared for) than the ALF.
I’ve also benefited from drugs that have been tested on animals – and I probably wouldn’t be here without them. So I’m not entirely opposed to animal testing, though I think there should be much tighter restrictions, that it should be limited to testing of essential drugs (and not cosmetics or cleaning products etc) and that there should be much more effort put into developing alternative testing methods. Again I’d very much support the RSPCA’s approach to the use of animals in research.
SHAC get ready to march from Bank
Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) runs a global campaign to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences, the largest contract testing laboratory in Europe, exposed on many occasions by journalists, on TV, by ex-workers and by animal rights activists – including SHAC – for various inhumane practices, breaking or ignoring regulations, incompetence and more. Home Office inspectors have also been found failing to enforce regulations.
Some of the more horrific evidence that has emerged has been about the treatment of primates captured in the wild for experiments at HLS; the company tried to stop publication of some of this material with an injection but this was overturned after a lengthy court battle. Fresh appalling evidence on their primate trade came out last year. SHAC have also exposed terrible conditions in farms breeding animals for use by HLS, as well as cruelty at some of HLS’s customers.
The demonstration in London by SHAC last Friday was impressive in several ways, not least in the wide range of people in the 300 or so it attracted and their obvious dedication to the cause. The march around London was to draw attention to the financial backing for HLS from the Bank of England, and also by major shareholders including Barclays, H P Morgan, Merril Lynch and AXA Investment Managers and it ended at the London NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) Euronext which lists HLS shares for trading.
This was a well-ordered demonstration that hardly merited the extensive police presence, although the City of London Police do appear to have a more even-handed approach to demonstrations than some other forces.
At NYSE Euronext where the demo dispersed
More at Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty on My London Diary.
