Sarah Gisborne Receives 6 1/2 Years for UK Animal Rights Attacks

Animal rights extremist Sarah Gisborne was sentenced in February to six-and-a-half years in jail after pleading guilty to causing criminal damage.

Gisborne caused an estimated Pound 40,000 in damages in five attacks on the automobiles and homes of individuals associated in one way or another with Huntingdon Life Sciences in the July 2004.

Gisborne was caught after one of her attacks was captured on a security camera which police used to identify the rental car she used.

This is not Gisborne’s first arrest or time spent in jail. She has been arrested 9 times for animal rights-related offenses, and spent time in jail twice, including for an attack on the home of Huntingdon Life Sciences’ director Brian Cass.

At least one of the homes was spray painted with “ALF,” but Grisborne has been very active in another group — Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty. As Brian Cass noted in commenting on the verdict, this is yet more evidence that SHAC engages in violent extremism. Cass told The Hunts Post,

I’m delighted that the court treated this offence with the seriousness which it deserves and I hope that this will serve as a lesson to other people who are similarly conspiring to harm the medical research community. Sarah Gisborne has been a very close associate to the leaders of SHAC for many years – they surely now cannot expect anyone to believe that they have nothing to do with criminal damage.

Along with the jail time, Gisborne is banned from coming within 500 meters of Huntingdon Life Sciences or Yamanouchi or contacting any of its staff for two years after her release, and is also banned from driving for three years after her arrest.

Source:

Animal protester jailed for attacks. February 26, 2005.

HLS activist gets six years. Amanda Breen, The Hunts Post, March 2, 2005.

Activists Falsely Accuse Emerson Employees of Being Pedophiles

Animal rights activists are the suspected culprit in actions across Great Britain in which leaflets falsely describing employees of Emerson Developments Holdings as pedophiles were distributed and a number of attacks on the homes of Emerson employees were carried out.

The Runcorn Weekly News reported on one such effort,

In Runcorn, one of the worst affected areas was Norton, where posters were plastered all over a phone box ‘naming and shaming’ a local resident — a man who police stress is not under suspicion of any crime — and encouraging people to confront him with these allegations.

The police spokesman said enquiries had revealed the ‘wholly false and uncorroborated’ claims were being made against individuals known to be targeted by animal rights group SHAC — but stressed that none of those named had any connection with the animal research industry.

About the same time, more than a dozen of Emerson’s directors had their homes and cars attacked. Activists covered cars in paint stripper and slashed tires. According to the Runcorn Weekly News,

Ninenteen Emerson directors are believed to have received threatening letters accusing them of “swimming in the blood of innocent animals” and threatening “violent retribution” if the property firm did not comply with their demands. Emerson are still Yamanouchi’s landlords.

Yamanouchi, of course, contracts some animal research out to Huntingdon Life Sciences.

SHAC spokesperson Natasha Avery tried to distance SHAC from the actions, especially since there is still a legal injunction against SHAC limiting where and how it can protest against Emerson. The Macclesfield Express quoted Avery as saying (emphasis added),

There is a campaign being waged by the ALF and the Animal Rights Militia against Emerson because of their involvement with Yamanouchi. There have been a huge number of attacks, things like turning up in the middle of the night and pouring paint stripper on cards and around the place. However it is important to differentiate between SHAC and the other groups. We are a legitimate organization who only use peaceful and lawful forms of protest. Cheshire police have linked us to this crime and we are going to be talking to our lawyers.

SHAC only uses peaceful and lawful forms of protest? This is the same Natasha Avery who in 2002, then going by Natasha Taylor, was sentenced to six months in jail and six months probation for illegally harassing Huntingdon Life Sciences employees. Avery’s modus operandi there was the same as those who distributed and mailed the leaflets accusing Emerson employees of being pedophiles,

[Natasha Avery and two others produced] newsletters [that] published telephone numbers and addresses of people associated with HLS, and urged people to arrange to order unwanted goods to be delivered to people’s homes in order to harm their credit rating. They also urged phone blockades against banks and a persistent letter campaign directed at employees.

The Macclesfield Express also carried a lengthy statement from Sir Nicholas Winterton, who is Macclesfield’s Member of Parliament and a non-executive director of Emerson’s overseas activities,

These criminal acts by members of the animal rights and animal liberation organizations have been going on for more than eight months now and are quite clearly extremely serious. They are carrying out in my view terrorist acts as they are seeking to achieve political ends by undemocratic actions.

Emerson itself, the company and the group, has nothing whatsoever to do with animal experimentation. It owns a property outside London, part of which is leased by Yamanouchi. But they handle completely legal activities there. Emerson is clearly bound by a legal lease that it can’t get out of unless Yamanouchi voluntarily seeks to surrender the lease, which it has not offered to do.

The company has been the subject of many attacks. The police are seeking to do everything they can. And it’s not just the directors, even the most humble employee of the company has experienced attention from activities. Members of the company and, I think, the chairman himself have received the most offensive letters and allegations of unpleasant sexual actions.

These are the actions of terrorists and those carrying them out should be treated as such. They are extremely dangerous people and it is completely unacceptable to target people going about their everyday business. The criminals carrying out these acts should be making representations to the government and parliament. I deplore and condemn their actions against companies that bring jobs, investment and tax revenue to this country.

Sources:

Campaign of terror waged aginast bosses. Macclesfield Express, September 2004.

‘Paedophile’ smear attack. Germa Melling, Runcorn Weekly News, September 9, 2004.

Animal Rights Militia Threatens "Violent Retribution" Against HLS Employees, Customers

In late December 2003 the Animal Rights Militia claimed that it had sent threatening letters to Huntingdon Life Sciences employees as well as employees of a number of companies that are customers of HLS or have some other sort of economic relationship with the firm.

Here is the Animal Rights Militia’s claim in its entirety,

The Animal Rights Militia in the UK has mailed out to 200 HLS workers, HLS supplier company directors, staff of HLS japanese customer Yamanouchi and every Daiichi worker in the UK threatening violent retribution if they do not sever their links with HLS by the end of the year 2003.

In addition we have written to all the directors of the letting agents for Daiichi’s UK sales office, Nelson-Bakewell and the landlords Royal London Asset Management, and also to Yamanouchi’s landlords Emerson and the letting agents Orbit in the UK giving them until the end of the year 2003 to evict Daiichi from their UK sales office and Yamanouchi from their new European headquarters in Surrey or face the consequences of harboring the animal killers.

For the animals dying in their cages killed by the monsters we will use all means at our disposal to finish off HLS. We mean business, we are deadly serious, we are fighting for victory and fighting for the innocent and nothing will stop us. We urge activists worldwide to go to war on HLS and finish them off for good.

For the animals always, onwards to victory, ARM

I think they forgot to threaten the brother of the janitor who works across the street from someone who dated an HLS employee 10 years ago.

Source:

Animal Rights Militia Communication. DirectAction.Info, December 23, 2003.

Group Publishes Personal Information of Bank Staff

A group calling itself No Justice, Just Us published names, addresses and phone numbers of State Street employees on a web site before the site was taken down.

Animal rights activists have targeted State Street because of alleged links it has with Huntingdon Life sciences.

The web site published the personal details about employees of State Street in addition to employees of HLS and HLS customer Yamanouchi, along with this message,

Make the bastards pay. . . . You will find after the list [of employees] is a selection of tips and tricks for smashing the monsters who must pay for murdering the animals at HLS.

. . .

The people listed here are not bit part players. They are the ones that matter. Think about what is going on inside Huntingdon and don’t feel frustrated . . . take out all that anger on the people listed here.

Although Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty launched a campaign against State Street in October 2003, it claims it has no connection with No Justice, Just Us.

Source:

Bankers Named On Animal Rights Site. Allison Martin, TheWharf.Co.UK, February 12, 2004.