Our reasons are as follows:

Animal Rights
Huntingdon Life Sciences kill 500 animals every day each one is an individual capable of suffering often left to die alone and in pain when the workers lock up at 17.00 after being poisoned or undergoing surgery.
Products which can maim and kill

HLS is a contract testing laboratory, they test anything for anyone as long as it pays. According to their own website they test artificial colourings, flavourings and sweeteners, herbicides, GM food and other products, plastics, industrial chemicals, “health foods”, dietary supplements, drugs etc under the headings pharmaceutical, crop protection, biopharmaceuticals, chemical, food and vetinary. All of these products are tested on animals and if passed as “safe” will be inhaled, ingested, drunk, absorbed through the skin or otherwise inflicted on an unsuspecting public. HLS even justify testing food on animals by saying “we need to be sure it is safe to eat”, of course it would be if it wasn’t doused with pesticides, wrapped in clingfilm and packed full of additives!

Factory Farming
HLS prop up the meat and dairy industry by experimenting on farm animals to force “productivity” even further. They offer to infect cows with mastitis (a very painful condition). Meanwhile farm animals are pumped full of antibiotics and we wonder why MRSA and VRSA are on the rise! Look up www.viva.org.uk for information on the meat industry regarding health, climate change, pollution, world hunger and extreme cruelty.

Corporate axis of evil
HLS has very nasty bedfellows the following are or have been customers :

Bayer when they were IG Faben they actually paid for Jewish women and used them in experiments in Nazi concentration camps. More recently they produced Baycol a cholesterol lowering drug which killed over 30 people before it was withdrawn.

Roche also had involvement with the Nazis i.e Xyclon B!

Union Carbide killed 5000 people at Bhopal in India in1984 at a gas plant due to criminal negligence, the people of that area suffer immeasurably from birth defects and many diseases as a direct result. Neither Union Carbide or Dow (who are also customers of HLS and are now responsible for sorting things out) can be bothered to clear up their mess or adequately compensate their victims www.bhopal.net .
DuPont produced a pesticide called Benlate/ Benomyl. Not only is it toxic to the harmless and essential for everyone’s very survival earthworm it is a possible carcinogen. It caused birth defects which involved 42 babies being born without eyes www.pan-uk.org .

Shell poisoned land and water in the Niger Delta. When the people who faced death by pollution and starvation protested Shell supported the army dealing with the situation. This involved chopping the arms and legs off of children and lots or torture and murder. Ken SaroWiwa led the campaign against Shell he was murdered by being hanged www.remembersarowiwa.com .

Glaxo Smith Kline produced an anti depressant known as Prozac/Seroxat. It has caused aggression, suicide and birth defects. It is also very difficult for many people to stop using once they become “hooked”. GSK have made a lot of profit out of the misery of people who would have managed perfectly well without the drug. www.seroxatusergroup.org.uk .

Cargill…where to start! Involved in GMOs, closely linked to Mc Donalds they produce EVERY item of chicken sold by the “restaurant” in the UK. They have a disgusting slaughterhouse in Hereford which kills thousands of chickens every day bar one called Rocky saved by 2 brave activists from the depths of hell last year. They also abuse some of their workers who are under constant surveillance and at the mercy of gang masters.

Monsanto who would like a monopoly on world food production have decimated the independence of farmers in India who have been made dependant on their seeds at a considerable cost. This has led to suicides and hunger so outraged were the farmers that their campaign was called “cremate Monsanto”. Monsanto’s GM crops infest conventional crops and they have even charged farmers for using their technology when this infestation occurs! No-one knows what the long term impact on our health will be, we have no say in the matter.

Please log on to www.corporatewatch.org.uk for more information on HLS, The above companies and many others with highly incestuous links to one another in their greedy quest for profit above all else. Those individuals within each company who make decisions which have caused extreme suffering and death will never face prison, unfortunately.

Human Rights
We will be present to show solidarity with the 7 people to be sentenced and all those imprisoned for their beliefs. The 7 have been found guilty of conspiracy to blackmail because they were part of a campaign which is legal but persons unknown have carried out illegal acts separate from that campaign. In a nutshell this means now that any effective campaign could be at risk if someone does something illegal separate from that campaign, effectively known campaigners are potentially responsible for the actions of people they do not know which they may not even agree with or have any knowledge of. For example Dr Simon Festing of the Research Defence Society (apologists for all animal testing ) was involved in the campaign against the Newbury by-pass which involved illegal (albeit moral) acts including arson and blockading workers in which he did not exactly condemn as a spokesman for Friends of the Earth and nor should he have done. However the police could theoretically as a result of this verdict arrest Dr Festing on the grounds that he as a known activist conspired with persons unknown to burn bulldozers to a frazzle thus “blackmailing” the road builders. Something for Simon to think about before he pontificates any further on SHAC. Hypocrisy…it’s a terrible thing.

Police Oppression
NETCU are based in Huntingdon, (Cambridgeshire Police HQ is just off Hinchingbrooke Park Road) and as all grass roots activists are aware this bunch exist primarily to stop all actions legal or otherwise. The way in which the police bullied and harassed peaceful campaigners and locals at Climate Camp in 2008 is partly down to NETCU and putting above all else their desire to keep protest to letter writing or police approved demos with police approved banners and leaflets on issues that do not upset anyone. We intend to make it very clear that we are not intimidated by them by holding demonstrations on their home turf on the day of sentencing.
The Plan

19th January 2009

07.00-11.00 Activists will be at Harlan near Abbots Ripton, Huntingdon. This is where beagles are bred for laboratories including HLS they can be heard from the road. It is on the B1090 look for the razor wire. Head out of Huntingdon on the A141 towards March at the Texaco garage on the roundabout follow the 141 left to another roundabout, turn left onto the 1090 Harlan is halfway up this road on the right.

12.00-18.00 Activists will be present at HLS Alconbury just off the A1, first exit north from the A14/A1 roundabout.

20th January 2009

07.00-10.00 Activists will be at Harlan Abbots Ripton again

12.00-18.00 HLS Barrack Road, Eye near Occold, Suffolk, IP237PX

Map //  http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=IP237PX&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=46.946584,79.101563&ie=UTF8&z=16&g=IP237PX&iwloc=addr

It is intended that at these venues protest is legal and disciplined and respectfully ask all activists to act in accordance with this. Anything and everything possible will be used against all grass roots activists on these 2 days let us not give the police or the media any ammunition or indeed the judge any excuse to up the sentences. Please bring food, hot drinks and warm clothes as both days will be long and cold.

Contact number 07914 795737

Another solidarity demo is being held on 20th January at 17.00 at Sequani Ledbury.