 | |
| Founded | 2003 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Mel Broughton |
| Type | Leaderless resistance |
| Focus | Opposition to animal testing |
Area served | University of Oxford, England |
| Website | speakcampaigns |
SPEAK (formerly known as SPEAK campaign) is a British animal rights group working to end animal testing in the UK.
In the early 2000s, SPEAC (Stop Primate Experiments at Cambridge) was formed by a coalition of animal rights groups to fight the construction of proposed laboratories by the University of Cambridge. [1] In 2004, the university announced they would abandon building their proposed Primate Research Facility due to unacceptable financial risks resulting, in part, from the activities of protestors. [2] The SPEAK campaign was a continuation and expansion of anti-vivisection efforts after the victory against Cambridge. "Migrating from Cambridge, the SPEAK campaign is to continue its role in the animal rights debate within the public and political arena through pro-active campaigning." [1]
SPEAK campaigns have been accompanied by acts of intimidation, incitement, and violence, usually claimed by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). [3] Robert Cogswell, co-founder of SPEAK, has said the campaign neither condones nor condemns the actions of the ALF. [4]
Incidents have included an arson attack on Hertford College boathouse; an attack on Corpus Christi College sports pavilion (which was, apparently, confused with Christ Church property); sending threatening letters to building firms connected with the construction project, the vandalism of other firms connected with the university, and threatening violence against Oxford University staff and students. [5]
In December 2007, SPEAK spokesman Mel Broughton was charged with conspiracy to blackmail, two counts of possessing an explosive substance, and two counts of having an article with intent to damage, in connection with arson attempts at Oxford's Queen's College and Templeton College. [6] [7] At his 2008 trial he was cleared of possessing an explosive substance with intent, but the court was unable to reach a decision on the other charges. In 2009 he was convicted of conspiracy to commit arson and sentenced to 10 years by the Crown Court. [8] After Broughton's conviction it was reported that police had infiltrated the ALF. [9] According to The Times, the documents obtained by the infiltrator showed the "ALF drew funding from - and often had the same leaders as - ostensibly peaceful groups such as Shac and Speak, an animal rights body in Oxford led by Broughton." [9]
In November 2004, Oxford University obtained an injunction against the groups SPEAK Campaigns, SHAC (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty) and ALF (Animal Liberation Front). The injunction limited the size of protests and prohibited protesting or loitering within a certain distance from the university's grounds and the property of any of the contractors, university members, employees and their families, its shareholders, its contractor employees, shareholders and their families, and anyone who visits the research laboratory. It prohibited taking photographs of such people or their vehicles or speaking to them. [10] [11] The injunction followed mounting complaints from students, researchers and workers about the hours-long use of sirens and megaphones by SPEAK on an almost daily basis.
In May 2006, Oxford appealed to the High Court to extend the injunction after threats were made against the university by the ALF. The court ordered that the injunction be widened to extend the exclusion zone, ban the use of megaphones and afford greater protection to individuals supplying goods or service to the university. A request by Oxford to further restrict the number of protesters from 50 to 12 was denied. [12] [13]
In June 2006, Mel Broughton, Robin Webb, and Amanda King were among several animal rights activists who were awarded legal aid to challenge the injunction. [14]
In October 2006, High Court judge Mr. Justice Irwin denied a request by ALF press officer Robin Webb to remove his name from the injunction citing he was not an ALF member but merely a supporter of the group. The judge said Webb was a " pivotal figure" in ALF and should be subject to an injunction, and that Webb was not a journalist but a propagandist who "echoed the threat from the ALF to the university", going "far beyond legitimate self expression". [15]
In October 2006, after allegations were made on the SPEAK website, Oxford University won a further injunction, prohibiting SPEAK from publishing allegations about the identity of contractors. [16]
In 2006, SPEAK produced a brochure claiming that Sir Michael Rawlins, chairman of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence said "The animal testing regime ... is utterly futile." NICE objected that the statement was quoted out of context and misleading. In June, the UK Advertising Standards Authority investigated. SPEAK did not respond, but later told ASA by phone that they planned on distributing the remainder of the brochures. ASA upheld the complaint by NICE and ruled that the testimonial was misleading and that brochure breached CAP Code clauses for non-response, honesty, truthfulness, protection of privacy, testimonials and endorsements. [17]
In January 2006, a student group called Pro-Test was formed with the aim of countering SPEAK and defending the use of animals in biomedical research. Both groups called demonstrations in Oxford on February 25, 2006, resulting in about 700 Pro-Test supporters opposed by 200-300 from SPEAK. [18]
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.
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.
Robin Webb is an English animal rights activist. He is a former member of the ruling council of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), and former director of Animal Aid. A British court ruled in 2006 that Webb was a "central and pivotal figure" in the Animal Liberation Front (ALF).
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.
Bite Back is a Malaysian-registered website and magazine that promotes the cause of the animal liberation movement, and specifically the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). According to The Sunday Times, the name is inspired by an arson campaign targeting the American fur industry throughout the 1990s.
Animal Liberation Press Offices relay anonymous communiques, photos, and videos to the media about direct action undertaken by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), Animal Rights Militia (ARM), Revolutionary Cells – Animal Liberation Brigade, Justice Department, and other leaderless resistance within the animal liberation movement. It states that it will "explain and seek to justify any action, whatever it may be", so long as it appears to have been carried out "with the sincere intention of furthering animal liberation." The North American press office also includes a newsletter, prisoner list and merchandise page.
Pro-Test was a British group that promoted and supported animal testing in medical research. It was founded on 29 January 2006 to counter SPEAK, an animal-rights campaign opposing the construction by Oxford University of a biomedical and animal-research facility, which SPEAK believes may include a primate-testing centre. Pro-Test held its first rally on 25 February 2006, attracting hundreds in support of the research facility and opposed by a smaller number of anti-lab demonstrators.
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.
Oxford Arson Squad is a militant animal rights organization, which emerged in the United Kingdom in 2005 after claiming the firebombing of the Corpus Christi College Sports Pavilion at Oxford University. The University denounced these acts of direct action stating that "the intimidating nature of this message is totally unacceptable".
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 Britain 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.
Mel Brown is a British landscape gardener and animal rights activist who rose to public prominence due to a planned bombing campaign aimed at preventing the construction of a new research laboratory at Oxford University. He was the co-founder in 2004, with Robert Cogswell, of SPEAK, The Voice for the Animals, a campaign to stop animal testing in Britain, which is focused on opposition to a new animal laboratory at Oxford University.
Heather Nicholson is a British animal rights activist.
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. The campaign has been linked to activists involved in Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC).
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.
