Tag: BioIndustry Association

UK Promises New Laws to Deal with Animal Rights Extremists

The Financial Times (UK) reported in March that Home Office Minister Bob Ainsworth had held a series of meetings with groups representing biotechnology firms, pharmaceutical companies, and medical researchers to discuss possible new legislation to make it easier to crack down on animal rights extremists such as Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty.

The Financial Times reported that there will not be any single overarching bill designed specifically to target animal rights extremism, but rahter a series of more focused bills look at strengthening legal methods of dealing with activists.

The Financial Times cites the BioIndustry Assocation as saying that in the last quarter of 2002 alone, there were over 62 protests by animal rights activists at the homes of the employees of targeted companies and a total of 20,000 e-mails, phone calls or text messages directed at animal testing firms.

Aisling Burnard, chief executive of the BioIndustry Association, told The Financial Times,

We need better co-ordination of policing and better co-ordination with the Crown Prosecution Service. We must be able to get convictions.

So far, that has been easier said than done.

Source:

Plan to reign in animal rights protesters. Patrick Jenkins, The Financial Times (London), March 19, 2003.

Great Britain Grants Early Release to Anti-HLS Activists

After all of this talk recently from UK government officials about how they are prepared to get tough with animal rights activists who cross the line, The Financial Times reports that in fact two animal rights activists sentenced to six months in jail for a campaign of harassment were released early several weeks ago.

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty activists Greg Avery, 35, Natasha Taylor, 33, and Heather James, 34, plead guilty for their campaign of harassment against people who were associated with Huntingdon Life Sciences. The trio published a newsletter that was distributed to 5,000 to 10,000 people that listed the names, phone numbers and addresses of individuals. The newsletter urged people to falsely order products to be delivered to targets in order to harm their credit rating. They also advocated phone blockades against banks, letter campaigns directed at individuals and other actions.

At their sentencing, Judge Zoe Smith told the three that, “The effect was to cause stress and strain. Witnesses have spoken of feeling violated and frightened and ill and it is clear you were aware of the effect and the stress they suffered.”

But the BioIndustry Association is warning that activists will get the message that they will be let off easy for such violations after it was revealed that Avery and James were released early a few weeks ago. According to The Financial Times they were ordered to wear electronic tags and not talk to the press.

New legislation has been enacted in Great Britain, but BioIndustry Association deputy chief executive Aisling Burnand told The Financial Times, “It is too early to say if it was enough. Seven people have been put behind bars and there is a feeling the campaign has run out of steam, but that could change.”

The Financial Times quoted SHAC as saying that the idea that their campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences had lost steam was “rubbish.” The Times quoted SHAC as saying,

We have been targeting financial backers of HLS, not just the pharmaceuticals companies. That is the only reason we’re less visible to the industry. They’ll never stop us. We’ll get worse and worse.

Well, at least the last sentence there is certainly true.

Source:

Drug companies warn of animal rights protests. David Firn and Patrick Jenkins, The Financial Times (London), April 23, 2002.

Huntingdon Life Sciences Leaves the London Stock Exchange

Last week, Huntingdon Life Sciences left the London Stock Exchange as it prepares to move its stock listing to the U.S. NASDAQ where its shareholders will be afforded more protection from the animal rights terrorists who have plagued the company for the past few years. The move brought reactions from all of the different players in the HLS saga.

Not surprisingly, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty spokesman Joseph Dawson told Reuters that, “We will not stop until we have driven this disgusting firm out of business.” Of course given SHAC’s recent fortunes he might have wanted to add to that “or until we’re all in prison.”

Great Britain’s Home Office spoke out promising that it would not allow another testing firm to be hounded out of the country as HLS was. “We will not hesitate to take any further action to make sure that legitimate businesses are free to operate without fear of intimidation,” a spokeswoman for the Home Office said. Words are cheap, though. We’ll see how Great Britain reacts when the SHAC protesters inevitably turn their hostilities toward other companies.

Paul Drayson, chairman of the BioIndustry Association, said that the industry needs to deal with the anti-HLS thugs head on. “They’re bullies and . . . there’s only one way to deal with bullies,” Drayson said. “You stand up to them together.”

Drayson urged Great Britain to adopt U.S.-style disclosure rules where shareholders with less than a 5 percent stake in a company can remain anonymous. In Great Britain, the threshold is only three percent.

HLS managing director Brian Cass debunked a piece of nonsense that SHAC had been floating in the United States. SHAC has been sending out press releases claiming HLS’ listing on the NASDAQ over-the-counter bulletin board as Life Sciences is in danger because the company has been unable to find a market maker for the listing.

Cass described this as nonsense saying, “We needed a market maker to sponsor the submission of our listing request. But that has happened.” The companied does not need a market maker for NASDAQ’s over-the-counter bulletin board trading.

Sources:

Call to shelter shareholders from extremists. Geoff Dyer, Patrick Jenkins, and Robert Shrimsley, The Financial Times (London), January 25, 2002.

UK says will defend firms as Huntingdon quits LSE. Mark Potter, Reuters, January 24, 2002.

Stand up to bullies says biotech chief. Rosie Murray-West, The Daily Telegraph (London), January 25, 2002.