A judge in the United Kingdom extended an interim injunction that placed time and place limitations on anti-Huntingdon Life Sciences protests in that country.
On April 16 a judge granted a temporary order requested by Huntingdon Life Sciences just a few days before an expected large protest by the group as part of the World Day for Laboratory Animals.
Mr. Justice Pitcher at that time created a 50-yard exclusion zone around the homes of HLS employees where anti-HLS activists could not protest. The order also placed an exclusion zone around the premises of HLS and limited the size of any protests against the company.
HLS lawyer Tim Lawson-Cruttenden had argued before Mr. Justice Gibbs that,
It is clear that both the claimant company and the claimant employees have been the subject of a very detailed campaign that has been targeted against them by an organisation called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
We say that the campaign amounts, at the very least, to harassment as a matter of fact, and that it also involves a large number of criminal offences being committed in the course of that campaign.
In granting an extension to the order, Mr. Justice Gibbs agreed with there Lawson-Cruttenden saying there was “a serious likelihood, in the absence of injunctive relief continuing, that the employees will suffer further unlawful harassment of a serious nature.”
Gibbs did alter the initial injunction slightly to allow for activist to protest more frequently.
Sources:
Judge renews curbs on HLS activists. Nikki Tait, The Financial Times (London), June 21, 2003.
JUDGE URDGE TO CONTINUE INJUNCTION FOR ANIMAL RESEARCH WORKERS. Cathy Gordon, Press Association, News, June 12, 2003.
JUDGE TO GIVE RULING ON HLS INJUNCTION. Cathy Gordon, Press Association News, June 20, 2003.
Lab firm injunction continues. The BBC, June 20, 2003.