The campaign against Highgate Rabbit Farm, also known as the Close Highgate Farm campaign, is a series of direct actions by anti-vivisection activists. Highgate Rabbit Farm in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire in England is licensed by the Home Office to breed rabbits and ferrets for animal-testing facilities, including Huntingdon Life Sciences. Actions have included a raid by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and an arson claimed by the Militant Forces Against HLS. The ALF raid in 2008 saw 129 rabbits removed and £100,000-worth of damage to property.[1] The campaign has been linked to activists involved in Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC).[2][3]
Highgate Farm, based in the village of Normanby by Spital, Market Rasen, is one of a number of animal-testing facilities in the UK that have been targeted, and in several cases closed, by anti-vivisection campaigners since 1997.[4]
Consort Kennels, which bred beagles for animal research, was closed that year after a ten-month campaign.[4] Shortly afterwards, Save the Hill Grove Cats—run by the same group of campaigners—was set up in opposition to Hill Grove farm in Oxfordshire, which bred cats for laboratories, successfully closing the farm in 1999.[5] The Hill Grove campaign then set up Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty to close Huntingdon Life Sciences, a contract animal-testing facility, a controversial campaign that continues. In parallel, Shamrock Farm in Sussex, Britain's only non-human primate importation and quarantine centre, was targeted; it closed in 2000 after a 15-month campaign by "Save the Shamrock Monkeys," and an investigation by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection.[6] Regal Rabbits in Surrey, which bred rabbits for animal laboratories, closed in 2000, and Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs was set up in Staffordshire against Darley Oaks Farm, which supplied guinea pigs for animal research, ending in May 2006 after a controversial grave desecration claimed by the Animal Rights Militia.[7]
On 6 January 2008, the Animal Liberation Front raided Highgate farm and removed 129 rabbits. A quad bike, lawnmower, van and a sports car were also reported to have been paint stripped and glued, causing £100,000 worth of damage. The ALF said they carried out the raid to stop the rabbits being sold to laboratories such as Huntingdon Life Sciences and other universities in the UK.[1][8][9] Following the raid, in April 2009, the farm installed a £60,000 security system to deter potential intruders.[10]
On 27 July 2009, half a dozen SHAC activists set up at protest camp for a few days 100 yards from the farm.[11][12] In September that year, as part of a Global Week of Action Against Laboratory Animal Breeders, 400 campaigners from SHAC gathered outside the farm. Over 100 police officers were deployed from over five forces, although the day passed peacefully with no arrests. The protest was hailed by campaigners as a success, bringing the farm to local attention.[13][14]
On 19 July 2010 a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van left at the farm was set on fire, destroying the vehicle. Eight rabbits inside the van died during the attack. Two men were later arrested on suspicion of arson and blackmail.[15] A group called the Militant Forces Against HLS said they had gathered information to use against the farm in the future. In response, the owner, Geoff Douglas, said he runs a legitimate business, that most of the animals go to test vaccines for both humans and animals, and he believes he is saving tens of thousands of lives.[16]
On 5 July 2011, members of the "Provisional RSPCA" went to Highgate Farm, broke into the conservatory and set fire to the inside of the owner home, using a incendiary device setting fire in the building and a transport van in other part of the farm.[17][18] The group claimed the attack in a statement published in BiteBack website.
In July 2008, a 22-year-old man, Lewis Pogson, was arrested in Worthing as part of an investigation into the ALF raid, which included searching the Friend Animal Sanctuary at East Peckham, near Paddock Wood, Kent.[19] He pleaded not guilty but was later found guilty of taking part in the raid and awaits sentencing.[20][21] Pogson subsequently published an account of his experiences.[22]
In October four more activists were arrested and accused of conspiracy to cause damage at Highgate Farm, including further charges of interfering with a contractual relationship so as to harm an animal research establishment and conspiracy. None of those accused were connected to the earlier ALF raid, but had links with SHAC. The prosecution claimed the activists were carrying out a “reconnaissance” to plan further criminal damage, designed to interfere with HLS' contract with the farm.[1][23]
The Revolutionary Cells – Animal Liberation Brigade (RCALB), known simply as Animal Liberation Brigade (ALB), is a name used by animal liberationists who advocate the use of freedom and a diversity of tactics within the animal liberation movement, whether non-violent or not. As part of a praxis, the intention is to destroy oppressive institutions, describing an endgame for animal abusers.
Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) was a contract research organisation (CRO) founded in 1951 in Cambridgeshire, England. It had two laboratories in the United Kingdom and one in the United States. With over 1,600 staff, it was until 2015 the largest non-clinical CRO in Europe. In September 2015, Huntingdon Life Sciences, Harlan Laboratories, GFA, NDA Analytics and LSR associates merged into Envigo, which later sold off the CRO part.
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.
Barry Horne was an English animal rights activist. He became known around the world in December 1998, when he engaged in a 68-day hunger strike in an effort to persuade the government to hold a public inquiry into animal testing, something the Labour Party had said it would do before it came to power in 1997. The hunger strike took place while Horne was serving an 18-year sentence for planting incendiary devices in stores that sold fur coats and leather products, the longest sentence handed down to any animal rights activist by a British court.
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).
Leaderless resistance, or phantom cell structure, is a social resistance strategy in which small, independent groups, or individuals, challenge an established institution such as a law, economic system, social order, or government. Leaderless resistance can encompass anything from non-violent protest and civil disobedience to vandalism, terrorism, and other violent activity.
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. His latest involvement is 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.
The animal rights (AR) movement, sometimes called the animal liberation, animal personhood, or animal advocacy movement, is a social movement that seeks an end to the rigid moral and legal distinction drawn between human and non-human animals, an end to the status of animals as property, and an end to their use in the research, food, clothing, and entertainment industries.
SPEAK is a British animal rights group working to end animal testing in the UK.
Ronnie Lee is a British animal rights activist. He is known primarily for being the Press Officer for the UK Animal Liberation Front (ALF) in 1976. He also founded the magazine Arkangel in 1989.
Animal Liberation Leagues were a network of animal rights organizations active in the UK in the 1980s. Whereas the Animal Liberation Front specialized in clandestine activity, mainly masked, at night, and involving small numbers of people, the Animal Liberation Leagues consisted of coordinated raids, or 'invasions', by a large number of people, mainly carried out during the day. One journalist described the Animal Liberation Leagues as "a sophisticated...development in the move to direct action". Raids were often carried out at the same time as legal demonstrations.
The Green Scare is legal action by the US government against the radical environmental movement, that occurred mostly in the 2000s. It alludes to the Red Scares, periods of fear over communist infiltration of US society.
This timeline of Animal Liberation Front (ALF) actions describes the history, consequences and theory of direct action on behalf of animals by animal liberation activists using, or associated with the ALF.
The Western Animal Rights Network (WARN) first appeared in 2005 as a coalition for animal rights groups in the West of England and South Wales and acted as a news service for animal rights demos and action reports.
The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is an international, leaderless, decentralized political and social resistance movement that advocates and engages in what it calls non-violent direct action in protest against incidents of animal cruelty. It originated in the 1970s from the Bands of Mercy. Participants state it is a modern-day Underground Railroad, removing animals from laboratories and farms, destroying facilities, arranging safe houses, veterinary care and operating sanctuaries where the animals subsequently live. Critics have labelled them as eco-terrorists.
Heather Nicholson is a British animal rights activist.
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.
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