Huntingdon in the Crosshairs

Scripps Howard News Service recently ran a brief, but thorough, story outlining the ongoing animal rights campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences.

Writer Lance Gay notes that HLS is fighting back both legally and with public relations efforts.

“We can’t afford to be silent,” said Michael Caulfield, vice president for operations. “We can’t let the intimidation win.”

Still, Gay writes,

Caulfield admits it is tough to persuade the public that drug tests on beagles and monkeys are needed, but those animals are sued because they are easy to handle and there’s a long history on how they react to drugs that provides a guide on how new drugs are going to affect human cardiovascular systems.

Meanwhile activists see their efforts to shut down HLS as merely the first salvo in efforts to end all animal testing.

Barbara Stagno, Northeast director of In Defense of Animals, says the ultimate goal of the campaign is to stop researchers from using animals for either drug or cosmetic testing.

And, of course, the activists are more than willing to use violence, with Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty spokesman Kevin Jonas saying, “Windows will be broke, and cars will be flipped, an animals will be taken. HLS will close down. That’s a promise I will make to you.”

Source:

A dogfight over animal testing. Lance Gay, Scripps Howard News Service, July 2001.

Ongoing Investigation of University of Minnesota ALF Action

Animal rights activists were
up in arms after a grand jury investigating the sabotage carried out at
the University of Minnesota recently called the student who claimed to
be an Animal Liberation Front Press Office Spokesman. On May 5, the Federal
Bureau of Investigation raided the home of Kevin Kjonaas and searched
the house for two hours.

Two days later Kjonaas was
subpoenaed and testified before the grand jury on June 14. The Minnesota
legislature briefly included a provision in an anti-animal rights terrorism
bill that would have penalized those who acted as spokespersons for terrorist
organizations, but the provision was removed from the final law that Gov.
Jesse Ventura recently signed.

Many activists were up in
arms at the raid and the subpoena, but it shouldn’t be too surprising
that someone who claims knowledge of a crime apparently obtained in some
manner from the perpetrators of the crime would be investigated as a possible
suspect. For example another former ALF “spokesperson,” Rodney Coronado,
had a habit of taking part in the crimes for which he later claimed to
serve only as a spokesperson.