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Brian Cass CBE FCMA is a former managing director of Huntingdon Life Sciences, a contract research organisation company that was based in Huntingdon in the United Kingdom and New Jersey in the United States. Before moving to Huntingdon Life Sciences, Cass was the managing director of Covance (now Fortrea). He was appointed a CBE in 2002. [1]
He was appointed to the Board of Huntingdon as Managing Director/Chief Operating Officer in 1998. He became a Director and Managing Director/President of LSR Inc in 2002. [2] He has held directorships with North Yorkshire Training & Enterprise Council Ltd and Business Link North Yorkshire Ltd. [2] He was elected to be a Vice President of the Institute of Animal Technology in 2009. [3] In the time Cass has been managing director at Huntingdon Life Sciences, he has doubled the company's revenues from $93m in 1999 to $191m in 2009. [4]
Huntingdon Life Sciences has been the target Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty since 1999, a campaign run by British and American animal-rights activists, who seek to close the company down for its treatment of, and experimentation upon, live animals. [7]
The campaign has included acts of intimidation and violence, including against Cass, who sustained head injuries when he was attacked outside his home on 22 February 2001 by three people armed with pickaxe handles and CS gas. A neighbour who tried to help him was sprayed with the gas. Detective Chief Inspector Tom Hobbs of Cambridgeshire police told reporters: "It's only by sheer luck that we are not beginning a murder inquiry." [8] David Blenkinsop, who had previously engaged in actions using the name of the Animal Liberation Front, was jailed for three years for the attack. [9]
Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) was a contract research organisation (CRO) organized in Maryland and headquartered in East Millstone, New Jersey. It was founded in 1951 in Cambridgeshire, England. It had two laboratories in the United Kingdom and one in the United States. With over 1,600 employees, it was the largest non-clinical CRO in Europe and the third-largest non-clinical CRO in the world. In September 2015, Huntingdon Life Sciences, Harlan Laboratories, GFA, NDA Analytics and LSR associates merged into Envigo.
Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) was an international animal rights campaign to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), Europe's largest contract animal-testing laboratory. HLS tests medical and non-medical substances on around 75,000 animals every year, from rats to primates. It has been the subject of several major leaks or undercover investigations by activists and reporters since 1989.
Jerry Vlasak is an American animal rights activist and former trauma surgeon. He is a press officer for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, a former director of the Animal Defense League of Los Angeles, and a former advisor to SPEAK, the Voice for the Animals.
Keith Mann is a British animal rights campaigner and direct action activist who acted as a spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), and was alleged by police in 2005 to be a ringleader for the ALF. He was imprisoned twice, and is the author of From Dusk 'til Dawn: An Insider's View of the Growth of the Animal Liberation Movement (2007).
The Animal Rights Militia (ARM) is a banner used by animal rights activists who engage in direct action utilizing a diversity of tactics that ignores the Animal Liberation Front's policy of taking all necessary precautions to avoid harm to human life.
Greg Avery is a British animal rights activist and former criminal. He has been involved with Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), an international campaign to force the closure of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), an animal testing company based in the UK and US. Avery has several prison sentences and served time for assaulting a policeman.
Paul Rudd Drayson, Baron Drayson is a British businessman, amateur racing driver and Labour politician. He was Minister of Science in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills until May 2010, where he replaced Ian Pearson. In June 2009 he was additionally appointed as Minister of State for Strategic Defence Acquisition Reform at the Ministry of Defence. After losing his ministerial positions in the General Election 2010 he decided to devote himself totally towards his motorsports company Drayson Racing Technology. He is chairman and CEO of Drayson Technologies Ltd.
RSPCA Australia is an Australian peak organisation established in 1981 to promote animal welfare. Each state and territory of Australia has an RSPCA organisation that predates and is affiliated with RSPCA Australia.
Shannon Keith is an American animal rights lawyer, activist, and documentary director/producer. She is the director of the Animal Liberation Front documentary, Behind the Mask: The Story Of The People Who Risk Everything To Save Animals.
Amanda Elizabeth Nevill, is a British arts administrator who is the former Chief Executive of the British Film Institute.
Robert R. Ruffolo was president of research and development for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, and corporate senior vice president of Wyeth from 2001 to 2008. In that role, he managed an R&D organization of 7,000 scientists, with an annual budget of $3 billion. During his career in the pharmaceutical industry, Ruffolo played a significant role in the discovery and/or development of a number of marketed products, including dobutamine (Dobutrex) for the acute management of congestive heart failure, and eprosartan (Teveten) for hypertension. He holds the patent for the discovery of use of carvedilol (Coreg) for the treatment of congestive heart failure which changed the paradigm for the treatment of this devastating disease, and he led the research team that discovered ropinerole (Requip) for Parkinson's Disease. Ruffolo was awarded the Discoverers Award in 2008 by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA), for his pioneering work on the discovery of carvedilol for congestive heart failure.
Ralph Mitchell Bernard is a British journalist, and a former chief executive of commercial radio group GCap Media.
Aisling Maria Burnand was a British business executive and consultant. In 2009, she joined Cancer Research UK as Executive Director of Policy & Public Affairs. In 2014, she became chief executive of the Association of Medical Research Charities.
Daniel Louis Lyons is the chief executive officer of the Centre for Animals and Social Justice, a British animal protection charity. He is an honorary research fellow at the University of Sheffield and the author of The Politics of Animal Experimentation (2013).
The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is an international, leaderless, decentralized movement that emerged in Britain in the 1970s, evolving from the Bands of Mercy. It operates without a formal leadership structure and engages in direct actions aimed at opposing animal cruelty.
Heather Nicholson is a British animal rights activist.
Trevor Mervyn Jones, CBE PhD DSc (Hon) FRCP FMedSci FBPhS FRSM FRSC FLSW is a visiting professor at King's College London, and a former Head of R&D, at Wellcome. He continues to have a distinguished career in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry as well as in academia.
Melanie Georgina Lee CBE is an English pharmaceutical industry executive and CEO of LifeArc, succeeding Dave Tapolczay in November 2018.
Dominion is a 2018 Australian documentary film filmed primarily with drones and hidden cameras inside Australian slaughterhouses and macro-farms with the aim to expose an opaque and inhumane system, according to the film's writer, director, and producer, Chris Delforce, an animal rights activist. The film documents multiple animal abuse industries in Australia, especially agricultural livestock, while focusing its message on animal rights. Dominion portrays the killing of animals through methods such as using carbon dioxide to gas pigs, maceration of chicks, and skinning foxes alive.
Jake Conroy is an American animal rights activist and vegan who was involved with Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), an international campaign to force the closure of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), an animal-testing company based in the UK and US, for which he designed and maintained the SHAC websites. Conroy had previously been a co-founder and activist for an anti-whaling group Ocean Defense International, formally called Sea Defence Alliance, and director of Northwest Animal Rights Network.