|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
UK Police Want More Power Against AR Terrorism
Special to FCUSA by Simon Ward
THE UK GOVERNMENT is to seek new police powers to stop the targeting of scientists by animal rights terrorists, Home Secretary Jack Straw said Aug. 30.
The move follows the Aug. 28 fire-bombing of five cars belonging to employees at Huntingdon Life Sciences in Cambridgeshire. According to media reports, there have been 1,200 attacks in Britain in the last year on labs and researchers using animals.
Animal rightists have been waging a three-year campaign to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences. Chief Superintendent David Auton of Cambridgeshire police described the latest attacks as "urban terrorism" and said that if the violence continued, they might soon be conducting a murder investigation. He also said the campaign had so far cost police £1 million.(1)
Speaking on BBC Radio on Aug. 30, Straw said police wanted new powers to tackle the perpetrators of these "preposterous" and "terrible" acts, and that the government had agreed to look into the matter.
"It is terrible what has happened to some of those employees," he said. "These are law abiding people doing a job on behalf of the rest of us."
He made no mention, however, of farmers, hunters and others who have been targets of terrorism.
Because any new powers given the police by Straw would only apply in England and Wales, scientists in Scotland have also called for these new powers to be extended north of the border.
"We certainly welcome Jack Straw's initiative. To some extent, it is long overdue," said Dr. Harry Griffin of the Roslin Institute, which produced Dolly the sheep.(2) "But ... we would be disappointed if the Scottish Executive did not follow suit to ensure that there is equal protection across the UK."
The government will also seek to strengthen the existing Malicious Communications Act to prevent terrorists inciting protests against researchers or shareholders in laboratories.
"We are seeing highly targeted campaigns of physical attacks, harassment, death threats, intimidation but there is no effective legal remedy to deal with it," said Dr Mark Matfield of the Research Defence Society.(3) "The Government has got to stop this. They have got to make these campaigns illegal."
Ministers will discuss the proposals with senior scientists and law enforcement in November.
NOTES:
(1) The Independent, Aug. 30.
(2) The Herald (Glasgow), Sept. 2.
(3) Daily Mail, Aug. 31.
For further information contact: Teresa Platt, Executive Director, Fur Commission USA, PMB 506, 826 Orange Avenue, Coronado, CA 92118-2698 USA, (619) 575-0139, (619) 272-2467/fax, furfarmers@aol.com, www.furcommission.com. See also Teresa's blog and Facebook.
To take a cyber-tour of a fur farm, visit FCUSA's Fur on Film.
© 1998-2010 Fur Commission USA