Tag: Great Britain

Brave Activist Assaults Homeless Man

On July 8, a homeless man was assaulted by a female animal rights activist. The activist was not apprehended and police will not investigate further as the homeless man declined to press charges.

According to reports, the woman approach the man verbally abusing him because of the Covance advertisements. The unidentified woman then punched the man the face.

So why did an activist go out of her way to assault a homeless man? The man was trying to make a little money by selling UK magazine “The Big Issue in the North.” One of the advertisers in the magazine is animal testing firm Covance.

A spokesman for “The Big Issue” said his magazine had little choice but to stop taking ads from Covance,

We will not put the safety or our vendors at risk and feel we have no option other than to stop running the Covance adverts in the magazine. Picking on vulnerable people to get what you want is a despicable way to act. The Big Issue in the North works with people who are victimized. Our vendors are 13 times more likely to be attack in the street than any other member of the public. People should be supporting vendors and organizations like The Big Issue in the North to tackle inequalities and not reinforcing them.

Riiight. Apparently the magazine missed the noticed that homeless people are no better than mice or rats.

Covance apparently spent a rather small sum on ads in the magazine — just 2,500 pounds per year — and a spokesman lashed out at the sort of scum who would assault a homeless man,

It is a great shame that the Big Issue in the North, which does a great deal to help disadvantaged people to help themselves, has been forced into this position. They have done what they had to do because their vendors were vulnerable and their safety has to be the primary concern. Our anger is directed only towards those people who would attack a magazine vendor simply because the magazine doesn’t agree with their views.

The irony, of course, is that the advertisements were recruitment ads for clinical trials. So the activists want researchers to use people rather than animals for tests, but they’ll punch homeless people in the face when firms actually seek human volunteers for medical research.

Sources:

Big Issue pulls ad after vendor attack. Manchester Evening News, July 28, 2005.

Big Issue rejects adverts after vendor is attacked. Russell Jenkins, The Times, July 29, 2005.

Huntingdon Wins Limited Discovery Access to SHAC Financial Records, Supporters List

In April, a British court rejected Huntingdon Life Sciences’ request for access to Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty’s address list of 10,000 supporters, but was granted HLS access to SHAC’s financial records and a list and addresses of all supporters who are activists with criminal records.

The ruling comes as part of the discovery process in HLS’s lawsuit against SHAC which looks to be on track to start sometime later this year.

HLS lawyers argued they needed access to the list to prove that SHAC includes among its supporters animal rights activists with criminal records, but a judge denied that request. Of course its a bit odd, but typically hypocritical, for a group like SHAC that regularly publishes the addresses of people only tangentially related to HLS to clam up over its own members.

According to the Telegraph, at one point SHAC’s lawyers actually tried to maintain that SHAC is not actually a group at all and thus not subject to discovery, but in the end conceded that it was an unincorporated association.

According to SHAC’s lawyer, Tim Lawson-Cruttenden, the organization receives about 150,000 pounds a year in donations.

Source:

Huntingdon refused access to information on activists. Rosie Murray-West, Telegraph (UK), April 21, 2005.

Animal Rights Extremists Take Credit for Cutting Fishing Nets

A group calling itself the Lobster Liberation Front took credit for the April slashing of a UK fisherman’s lobster nets.

The Southern Animal Rights Coalition posted the following message to its website from the extremists,

Avast ye!

Over the Easter Weekend, marauders from the Lobster Liberation Front took the fight to the coast once more, ensuring that the Dorset fishing industry does not forget our name.

Extensive damage was inflicted upon vast lengths of fishing nets. Our tools bit like the teeth of shark, as net after net was left shredded at our feet. To finish the effect, they were left draped across the boats.

Of course, the LLF couldn’t leave without wreaking havoc on a few unsuspecting lobster pots! The floating prisons were put out of action, never again to ensnare our marine life.

Needless to say, the scurvy dog who lurks about Kimmeridge Bay, trapping crustacean life so that they can be boiled alive and eaten, must have felt awfully sea sick when he found his equipment in the morning!

This action demonstrates that the LLF is no joke. We are here to stay, and we mean business. Those who find the cruel and merciless boiling alive of innocent life as not only acceptable, but even comical, should start looking over their shoulders.

See ye soon bilge dogs!

LLFM

The nets belong to Nick Ford, 40, who told the Press Association,

They are obviously picking on small fisherman. It’s my livelihood. I’m only a one-man band trying to muddle my way through life bringing up my two children. My job happens to be that I’m a fisherman. I don’t know what they are trying to do. They say they are trying to save the lobsters but they will do more harm than good.

Sources:

Animal rights group target lobster fisherman. Lesley Richardson, Press Association, April 19, 2005.

Lobster Liberation Front Strikes Again. Southern Animal Rights Coalition, April 4, 2005.

IFAW Needs Basic Economics Lesson

In order to protest the sale of ivory, the International Fund for Animal Welfare publicly destroyed a giant elephant tusk constructed from various pieces of ivory in London’s Trafalgar Square. But it seems a bit confused about its motivation.

According to IFAW’s wildlife campaigner, Jenny Hawley,

Elephants are intelligent and sociable animals, capable of enormous suffering. Many populations are also at risk of extinction. People must remember that every ivory item they buy increases the demand, which is met by poacher. IFAW believes ivory belongs to elephants. The only way to stop elephants being killed for their tusks is to make ivory worthless.

Where did Hawley get her economics degree from? By publicly destroying ivory, the IFAW sends a clear signal that the amount of ivory available for sale, legally or illegally, has just declined. And what happens when the quantity of a commodity for sale declines (all other things being equal) — its value increases.

Hawley continues,

By destroying its own ‘stockpile’, IFAW is calling for all countries with ivory stockpiles to put them beyond use for ever. If we want to safeguard the future of elephants, then all international discussions must focus on proper long-term conservation measures rather than trade.

But, again, destroying such stockpiles would simply send the price of ivory skyrocketing which would make elephants an even more lucrative target for poachers.

Protecting elephants from poaching by strangling the supply of ivory will work just as effectively as stopping illegal drugs by attempting to strangle the supply has.

Source:

IFAW destroys giant tusk of unwanted ivory in its campaign to protect elephants. Press Release, International Fund for Animal Welfare, April 12, 2005.

Animal Rights Extremists Driving Pharmaceutical Investment Out of Great Britain

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry reported in April that capital spending by the pharmaceutical industry fell by almost 20 percent in 2003. Spending on research also fell by 100 million pounds — the first such drop since 1990.

The industry blames animal rights extremists. Vincent Lawton, president of the association, told The Times,

It is clear that the continuing threat posted by animal extremists is a contributory factor. . . I hope that these figures indicate just a temporary blip, but the dangers of the UK losing out to other countries are very real.

The decline in investment occurred at a time when pharmaceutical investment is exploding worldwide. For 2003, global spending by pharmaceutical companies increased an estimated 11 percent according to U.S.-based Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Source:

Extremists ‘are driving drugs firms out of UK’. Richard Irving and Nigel Hawkes, April 6, 2005.

Police Warn Hunt Opponents about Vigilante Activities

Police in Cumbria, Great Britain warned in March that they will not tolerate vigilante activities by anti-hunt protests. Right, just like Great Britain has shown it will not tolerate harassment and violence for anti-animal research activists.

Police Superintendent Steve Turnbull told The Whitehaven News,

We would also discourage anyone from disrupting legal activities.

If anybody has any information [on illegal hunts] they should hand it over to the police. We will listen to them.

Wow — police are actually going to discourage people from interfering with legal activities. What a bold policy. Turnbull’s really going out on a limb here.

Source:

Police Warn Anti-Hunt Vigilantes. The Whitehaven News, April 2005.