Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty

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Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty ( SHAC , in German roughly: Stop Huntingdons Cruelty to Animals ) is an international campaign from the environment of the animal rights movement , the aim of which is the closure of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), the largest European animal testing company with laboratories in Huntingdon and Occold in United Kingdom and East Millstone in New Jersey in the US .

The organization is described by the British press as a militant cell, in the USA it is assigned to ecoterrorism . In both countries were in the past, activists because of offenses sentenced that they have committed in the course of the campaign.

According to the website, other groups exist in France , the Netherlands , Germany , Italy and Switzerland, among others .

background

As an international research laboratory, HLS tests products such as household cleaners, pesticides and food additives on around 75,000 animals of all kinds every year. The company has been the subject of covert research several times since 1989. In 1997, Zoe Broughton published pictures for the UK television station Channel Four showing HLS workers shaking and beating puppies. Her report on the living conditions of the test animals in the HLS laboratory triggered a public outrage, through which shareholders and customers distanced themselves from the company and thus brought it into financial distress.

The following year, Michelle Rokke secretly filmed the vivisection of a monkey at HLS in New Jersey for the organization PETA . On her video, a technician expresses concern that the monkey is not adequately anesthetized . HLS was then with a fine of 50,000 US dollars for 28 alleged violations of the Animal Welfare Act occupied.

The founders of SHAC include British animal rights activists Greg Avery and Heather James, who had previously campaigned against animal testing. They started the initiative after watching PETA's film from the HLS laboratories on UK television. SHAC-USA was founded in 2004 by Kevin Jonas, a political science graduate from the University of Minnesota , after working with Greg Avery in the UK for two years.

campaign

SHAC takes a decentralized approach and operates without official guidance, which allows individual activists to act autonomously in the context of direct actions . However, The Guardian described Avery in 2008 as the actual leader of the campaign and called the organization a militant cell .

Actions range from legal protests to illegal intimidation and threats to HLS employees and their families. Other people and companies in the vicinity of HLS are also threatened. So were z. B. the employees of a kindergarten are given the choice not to look after the children of employees of the HLS; otherwise their lives and that of their families would be made hell. Other HLS business partners are also viewed in this way as secondary or tertiary goals . The organization publishes the names, home addresses and telephone numbers of executives and employees of HLS and the companies with which HLS does business and encourages them to express their displeasure with HLS 'animal testing. According to the SHAC website, names and addresses are only published there to give people opportunities to protest within the legal framework.

However, extracts from a document allegedly from SHAC give activists tips on tactics to protest outside the homes of targeted people. These notices include throwing high-pitched alarms on gutters at night , shooting fireworks, and ordering taxis and pizzas to the appropriate address. However, the actions within the framework of the campaign extend to detonating fire bombs in the homes of executives of HLS customers and investors. Since the onset of the crimes, HLS 'profits have declined, the share price has plummeted, and the company has found it difficult to find financial and business partners. In 2000, SHAC obtained a list of HLS shareholders , including anonymous individuals and companies, who had bought shares on behalf of third parties. The list also included the British Labor Party , Rover Automobile and the London Borough of Camden . The list was forwarded to the Sunday Telegraph , whereupon several owners, including the Labor Party, shed their shares.

Criminal prosecution

SHAC 7 (USA)

In 2009, 13 SHAC activists, including Avery, were sentenced to between 15 months and six years in prison. They were accused of plotting to blackmail or harm HLS and its suppliers.

The investigation, in which members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force were involved, found the highest number of permits for telephone tapping and electronic surveillance in the USA in 2003. However, hardly any criminal activity could be linked to the SHAC 7. Instead, the charges mainly related to the group's website.

In March 2006, a federal court in Trenton , New Jersey found six members guilty of inciting attacks on HLS business partners on their website. Originally seven activists (the SHAC 7) were charged: Kevin Jonas (formerly head of SHAC USA), Lauren Gazzola, Jacob Conroy, Joshua Harper, Andrew Stepanian, Darius Fullmer and John McGee. The charges against McGee were later dropped.

The remaining defendants were charged with conspiracy to violate the Animal Enterprise Protection Act and the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act based on it. Jonas, Gazzola, Conroy and Harper were also accused of conspiring to harassment using a telecommunications device (sending black faxes). Jonas, Gazzola, Conroy and the SHAC USA campaign were also accused of internet stalking. The defendants were found guilty and four of them were sentenced to between three and six years' imprisonment and to pay a joint indemnity payment of $ 1,000,001.

Operation Achilles (GB)

In May 2007 a police operation against SHAC was launched in Europe under the name Operation Achilles , employing 700 police officers in England, Amsterdam and Belgium.

A total of 32 people were arrested in connection with SHAC and seven SHAC members, including Greg Avery, were found guilty of extortion.

The accusation according to which a meeting was in 2007 between the accused by the police have been intercepted and reveal that SHAC was involved in illegal activities. The prosecution also said there was evidence of direct email contact between SHAC, the Animal Liberation Front and the Animal Rights Militia.

In January 2009, seven activists were sentenced to between four and eleven years in prison.

controversy

Arguments from SHAC critics refer, on the one hand, to the fact that the campaign methods did not work. HLS Managing Director Brian Cass said that HLS has doubled its orders since SHAC was founded in 1999. It also states that HLS claims to comply with UK animal welfare laws, some of the strictest in the world for animal testing. If HLS were to close in the UK, it is argued, the company would likely relocate its testing laboratories to other countries that have less stringent laws. Last but not least, the methods of SHAC, which can affect bystanders due to incorrect information, are criticized. Fundraising by SHAC is also criticized because the organization is not recognized as a non-profit organization and the use of these donations cannot be controlled.

Advocates of the campaign, however, argue that given the suffering HLS has caused, it is not only legitimate in its methods, but also effective, and that the company has brought HLS to the brink of ruin. Supporters also speak of the criminalization of generally legal campaigning with regard to the prosecution of SHAC activists and invoke the right to freedom of expression. They refer to the term green scare and try to draw a parallel to the persecution of communists during the McCarthy era in the USA. American law enforcement agencies still regard the activists' actions as eco-terrorism .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b "Campaigns, protests and prison terms: how activists formed militant cell" , The Guardian, December 24, 2008.
  2. ^ A b c R. Scott Nolen, AVMA : Panel: law punishing animal rights extremists too weak , August 1, 2004.
  3. www.crimethinc.com ( Memento of the original from December 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.crimethinc.com
  4. Shac site
  5. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1123837.stm
  6. Article on theguardian.com (Engl.) .
  7. HLS Undercover Video
  8. John Cook: Thugs for Puppies. Article dated February 7, 2006
  9. John Cook: Thugs for Puppies. Article dated February 7, 2006
  10. ^ "Childcare group warned of 'hell'" , BBC News, September 29, 2005.
  11. John Cook: Thugs for Puppies. Article dated February 7, 2006
  12. SHAC disclaimer
  13. ^ House of Commons Hansard Debates on March 19, 2003.
  14. http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2002/fall/from-push-to-shove ( Memento of March 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Article on the Site of the Southern Poverty Law Center
  15. "Money talks" , The Guardian of 1 June 2006
  16. ^ "Lab that tests Labor's ethical policy," January 23, 2000;
    "Labor pension fund sells animal research lab shares," Jan. 30, 2000; Harrison, David and Foggo, Daniel.
  17. "Animal rights activists jailed for terror ising suppliers to Huntingdon Life Sciences" , The Guardian , 25 October, 2010.
  18. John Cook: Thugs for Puppies. Article dated February 7, 2006
  19. Kocieniewski, David. "Six Animal Rights Advocates Are Convicted of Terrorism" , The New York Times , March 3, of 2006.
  20. ^ Cook, John. "Thugs for Puppies" , Salon , 7th February, 2006.
  21. ^ "Britain's other war on terror" , Spiegel Online from November 19, 2007
  22. "Animal rights extremism - police arrest 32 people" ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit press release dated May 1, 2007. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.netcu.org.uk
  23. Laville, Sandra
  24. ^ "Activists in live testing trial deny blackmail" , Financial Times, October 6, 2008.
  25. ^ "Five deny animal rights blackmail," BBC News, October 6, 2008.
  26. Yeoman, Fran. Jail for animal rights extremists who waged six-year blackmail campaign , The Times, January 21, 2009.
  27. bbc.co.uk
  28. London Evening Standard, March 31, 2003
  29. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1318487/Terror-tactics-that-brought-a-company-to-its-knees.html
  30. Website for the book '' Green is the new Red ''