At least 15 men and 17 women have been held in a variety of places across England in connection with criminal activities in the name of animal rights.
700 police officers were dispatched in the early morning to arrest the 32 people. There were also raids in the Netherlands and Belgium.
At one of the locations raided, an animal welfare facility, it was reported to have been said that the police tactics were "heavy handed" and that they had nothing to hide.
On a more relevant note, its about time these people were arrested. They just use animal rights as an excuse to cause trouble (sometimes with serious consequences).
Maybe you should read about what laws they have broken before you pass comment.
The UK Serious Organised Crime and Police Act effectively makes lawful protest illegal.
These people face years in prison for using a megaphone to "cause alarm and distress" sometimes which a non animal rights activist would not even be arrested for.
I happen to know personally 3 of the individuals who were arrested and I can tell you that they have done nothing more than protest with a megaphone.
Yes, you could supply some sources of people setting fire to houses with people in? and the proof that the remains of Gladys Hammonds remains were stolen by animal rights activists?
Maybe your sources will come from the same sites that say all Muslims are terrorists or anyone who doesn't own a gun is a communist?
I dare anyone to look through the media bullshit to the truth.
I would like to add that no-one has ever been killed in the name of animal rights, but 6 people in the UK have been killed related during protests by the same people who abuse animals for profit.
Animal Liberation Front bomber faces jail after admitting arson bids
· Police hail conviction of anti-vivisection extremist · Investigation into 'seven or eight' similar offences
Esther Addley Friday August 18, 2006 The Guardian
A man described as the Animal Liberation Front's top bomber is facing jail after admitting he carried out explosive attacks on the homes of a number of people with connections to a pharmaceutical research laboratory. Donald Currie, 40, pleaded guilty at Reading crown court to four charges of arson, one of attempted arson, and two counts of possessing explosives with the intent of carrying out further explosions. He will be sentenced on September 28.
A senior source at Thames Valley police said later yesterday: "It is our belief that Currie was the main active bomber for the Animal Liberation Front. We consider his arrest and conviction to be a significant event." The court heard Currie had been arrested on March 26 in Caversham, Reading, after trying to bomb a car belonging to the husband of Caroline Brooks, director of a courier firm that has worked for Britain's biggest testing laboratory, Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). The laboratory and its suppliers have been the subject of a sustained campaign by animal rights activists opposed to their activities.
While running from the scene Currie abandoned a second device in the garden of a nearby home, before being arrested by police. The explosives were a crude mixture of sodium chlorate, a commonly available weedkiller, and sucrose, which combine to make a volatile explosive. Neither of the packages detonated.
On September 7 last year, Currie attacked the home of Paul Blackburn, the corporate controller of the drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline, which has links to HLS. That device exploded on the porch of Mr Blackburn's home in Beaconsfield, Bucks, while his wife and daughter were inside.
Currie, unemployed and of no fixed abode, denied involvement in an arson attack on a warehouse in Williton, Somerset, in April 2005, in which the warehouse of a firm manufacturing transportation devices was seriously damaged. The judge ordered that this offence should lie on file.
The police source said that in addition to attacks Currie admitted, "there are another eight or nine that in our opinion are of a very similar nature. The investigation is ongoing into those." Thames Valley police were working alongside six other forces - Hertfordshire, Sussex, Leicestershire, Dorset, Surrey and Northamptonshire - in this investigation.
Following Currie's arrest in March, the Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the Reading attack, posting a notice on its website which read: "Caroline Brooks is a legitimate target for people working to end the appalling suffering of animals at the hands of Huntingdon Life Sciences." She was also targeted two years ago, when acid was poured over her cars. PDP Courier Services, of which Mrs Brooks is the director, specialises in transporting pharmaceutical products. She was unavailable for comment yesterday.
The ALF lists Currie among 25 people, 11 of them in Britain, who are currently in prison and who it says "have made a huge selfless sacrifice for animals". However, police believe his affiliation to the ALF may have been loose. The source said he was "very committed, willing to be martyred for the cause." Officers were still hunting other people in connection with the attacks, he said.
In 2004, Currie was among seven individuals and organisations named by HLS in a £200,000 costs order, in which the company attempted to recoup the cost of obtaining injunctions against them.
The laboratory has been a target of animal extremists since the 1990s; early attacks on workers and their properties evolved to include the firm's suppliers, and even investors in suppliers. In May, hundreds of GSK investors were sent letters threatening that they would be targeted if they did not sell shares in the firm. Last year a nursery offering services to HLS employees was also threatened.
In addition, ALF extremists have targeted firms associated with construction of a new research laboratory at Oxford University. At least five contractors have now pulled out of the project.
Four people were jailed in May for stealing the body of Gladys Hammond from a Staffordshire graveyard, in an attempt to blackmail her son-in-law, who owned a guinea pig breeding farm. The remains were recovered and reinterred, but the family is no longer involved in the firm.
Figures released last month by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry show attacks on scientists by animal rights extremists have fallen. In the first six months of 2006, 15 incidents were recorded at private homes, compared with 32 in the same period last year.
I know we all like being on the 'animal activists are morons' bandwagon (f@ck PETA), but these types of 'raids' tend to be more about the appearance of doing something rather than about actually doing something. Let's play a game. Out of the 30 arrested, how many do you think will actually be charged with anything more than misdemeanors. How many will be charged at all?
I hope you never play a version of Texas Hold'em with Rynab , he called, and said ALL IN and don't forget, the old saying, "watch what you wish for, you might get it" ! LOL
Ok point taken, there are people out there who are extremists. But by definition they are not animal rights activists. Neither are they members of the Animal Liberation Front. Animal Rights activists consider all life to be equal and see humans as animals as well.
Back to the original point, the people who were arrested during these raids have NOT been arrested for anything other than activities relating to extremism, they have been arrested for protesting against an industry where the government has a vested interest and they are being crucified for it.
You can laugh all you like at the silly animal rights protesters. But it is your freedom the government are removing.
They are changing the laws to make any protest illegal, so when you decide you give a sh** about an issue and want to take to the streets but instead are imprisoned remember how you laughed while others were silenced.
And which ever arse hole said they should test drugs on animal rights activists, grow up - maybe people who don't support the war in Iraq should be used as human shields?
Well, if these people did nothing more than protest legaly, fine. I hope and trust they will be exonerated, however, most of there kind I've come across have done nothing of the sort.
How could you possibly come to that conclusion? Most of there kind? What is that suppose to mean? Most animal rights activists are elderly ladies those who partake in regular protest must be around 20% of activists. Those who partake in illegal activities must be less than 1% of the total!
Do you have "experience" of animal rights activists outside of what the media says? Because lets face it they are hardly positive about animal rights.
"These people face years in prison for using a megaphone to "cause alarm and distress" sometimes which a non animal rights activist would not even be arrested for."
You are aware that the words being screamed into megaphones are aimed at (for example) Secretaries and contractors working at places like huntingdon life science threatening to kill them and their families and pleding terror campaigns?
If you say "no i fully support somones right to intimdate, threaten with viloence and terrorise others" then you can DIAF.
my ex-gf was a biologist who worked with animals on diabetes drugs and was threated by these shaven head, jobless, hippie pricks and if it was up to me they'd be locked up for the same amount of time as the july bombers.
Well your comments say it all, you even managed some stereotypes - bravo.
I've seen the British Medical Journals on Diabetes, man it must suck to kill so many thousands of animals and occasionally find cures for them which never work in humans.
The journals all show the same thing "animal models produced no conclusive results". The same misleading diabetes animal research back in 1922 delayed the discovery of insulin for decades - how many lives could have been saved?
Statistically speaking she should spend her time flipping a coin as this would produce better results.
I don't agree with threats at all, I am a peaceful person. But I do however think that protest is important for social change and if your girlfriend wants to do her job she must accept that some people don't agree with what she is doing and will protest against it. - If she doesn't like that maybe she should find another job.
Your logic is baffling? Have you ever considered it creates thousands of jobs. Thats like saying fossil fuels MUST be ok because multinationals continue to exploit them...
I would ask that you spend a whole lot of time looking through medical journals and look at the stats pal. THERE ARE NO "CURES" THAT HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED DIRECTLY FROM ANIMAL RESEARCH.
I didnt say fossil fuels dont work - I meant they arent OK to exploit. Multinationals are here to maximise profit in the now and to hell with the global consequences in the future. I am obviously reffering to global warming.
I have researched animal testing a stupid amount, for christ sake New Scientist said that animal tested drugs were the 4th biggest killer world wide.
Animals werent good enough for GlaxoSmithKline when they decided they would test on NY orphans.
I'm confused do you think they don't sell the drugs? They make billions from the sale of the finished drug and future patents.
It doesn't detract from the fact that the process is pointless. Under EU law they must test new chemical formulas on small are large species during clinical trials.
Also, the amount of jobs it creates does matter as the Government have put millions into protecting and hiding the facts behind vivisection because it is "good" for the economy.
Money aside, animal tests do not work. They cause the death and maiming of countless humans worldwide.
I think you might well find that a large portion of animal research is funded by major charities & public taxes. So they don't spend millions - they are given millions to use.
"Creating jobs" isnt good for the economy, the UK economy is under siege from the millions of jobs the government created, its not being liberated by them.
If animal tests didnt give any useable information, people wouldnt do it.
Well pal, you obvious dont want to look past your own nose so I give up.
Do some f**king research then comment PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!
I have had friends and relatives die from cancers and heart problems, I am pro science I just think (as many many scientists do) that vivisection is fraudulent science.
You should ask questions about any industry that uses orphans to test HIV drugs - but HEY they must be honest for they are a multinational corporation that have only our best interests at heart.
Ok, I invite you to find one cure or treatment in humans that was directly discovered because of animal research?
Dr Vernon Coleman offered £500,000 to any scientist who prove any treatment or cure was due to animal research. Needless to say he didnt lose any cash...
You are obviously a very nieve person if you think that this industry doesnt have it secrets. Animal research is a multi million pound industry there is a lot of money to be made - this is why it happens.
You are obviously a very nieve person if you think that this industry doesnt have it secrets. Animal research is a multi million pound industry there is a lot of money to be made - this is why it happens.
Why is it a multi million pound industry? Why do all these companies keep spending all this money on animal research if it accomplishes nothing?
WHY? WHY? WHY?
Companies do things to make money, research costs money, therefore there must be a benefit to doing so.
You are obviously too much of a lazy tw@ to go and read up on this and I am getting kind of bored of replying to your barrage of ill informed rhetoric.
The police and our law would be half as "heavy handed" on the cowards; that abuse animals and use animals like they are nothing to be considered at all.
Resorting to personal attacks, that is good - desparate times desparate measures.
Listen, if you arent going to research it then we are at a loss here. Its kind of like when people heckle you in the street whilst doing an information stall then when you attempt to debate or discuss and they shout over you and say "I dont care, lalalala". Dont ask a question if you dont wish to know the answer.
