World Animal Liberation

Animal rights, anti-vivisection, live exports, intensive farming.

SchNEWS 745: Serious Organised Crime

The six defendants in the second SHAC trial were hammered with vicious sentences this week. The harshest sentence was the six years handed down to 53 year old Sarah Whitehead. Sentences for the other defendants Tom Harris. Nicole Vosper, Jason Mullan, Nicola Tapping and Alfie Fitzpatrick ranged from a two year suspended sentence for the youngest, Alfie, to three and a half years for Nicole Vosper. All the defendants also copped lengthy ASBOs, which will prevent them from any further participation in animal rights activism.

On the Newswire:

In SchNEWS: 581 | 586 | 616 | 630 | 652 | 660 | 663 | 666 | 667 | 688 | 738

Links: www.shac.net | www.schac7.com |

Campaign launched to close down German dolphinarium

28-07-2010 09:43 | Animal Liberation | Ocean Defence | World

"Not only do we have to fight criminal operations and cruelty to animals on the high seas but also take responsibility and direct action to help those who are imprisoned in concrete pools, doomed to entertain us."

Palawas, Nando, Kite and Rocko. Those are the given names to four bottlenose dolphins who are currently performing at the dolphinarium in Münster, Germany. Built in 1974 as part of the local zoo, the dolphinarium remains one of the last three of its kind in Germany. From the original nine facilities keeping dolphins in captivity, only Nürnberg, Duisburg and Münster are still blocking and ignoring concerns of animal welfare groups, conservationists, politicians and the public.

Links: The Black Fish | Save Japan Dolphins

SchNEWS: For Pete's Sake

Banged up Sea Shepherd campaigner Pete Bethune is facing a long prison sentence after boarding a Japanese whaling ship during protests in the Southern Ocean in February. Operation Waltzing Matilda was the most successful Sea Shepherd campaign yet against illegal Japanese whaling (see SchNEWS 713), but it wasn't without a cost for Sea Shepherd after their £2 million boat the Ady Gil was rammed and sunk by a whaler on January 6th.

On the Newswire: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

In SchNEWS: 713 | 705

Links: www.seashepherd.org

Direct Action To Remember Barry Horne

14-11-2009 08:24 | Animal Liberation | History | World

Barry Horne was an animal liberationist who died in a UK prison hospital on November 5th 2001. He had been sentenced to 18 years in prison for a campaign of economic sabotage, carrying out criminal damage and arson attacks against companies involved in the vivisection, leather and fur industries. His actions were allegedly claimed in the name of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and sometimes the Animal Rights Militia (ARM), taking place in Bristol and the Isle of Wight

In prison he went on hunger strike several times in protest against government support for the vivisection industry, and their broken pre-election promises about animal experiments. The third of these hunger strikes lasted 68 days, and Barry never fully recovered. From this protest he generated worldwide publicity, and initiated a huge uprising of animal liberation activity, the effects of which are still being felt even today - eight years since his death.

His memory has been remembered every November, for being an inspiration to the movement and giving his life to animal liberation. This year actions have been dedicated to Barry from as far afield as Latin America, with dozens of deer returned to freedom by the ALF in Spain, 17 rabbits freed from a university in Uruguay (Video), four sheep rescued from a farm by the Igualdad Animal's Open Rescue Team in Spain (Pictures) and a Max & Co fur shop and leather shop painted red by the ALF in Italy and Chile. The Mexican ALF also rescued four ducks and two hens from a breeding farm (Pictures) and caused dirsruption to Novartis with a bomb hoax in the capital for Barry. There was also a protest outside HLS in rememberance of Barry in Occold, Suffolk by SHAC campaigners.

Links: Bary Horne Memorial | Remember Barry | Barry Horne: ALF Tribute | Bite Back Magazine

Resistance To The Fur Trade

16-10-2009 18:23 | Animal Liberation | Birmingham | World

With fur back in season so is the resistance to it. From raids at farms to sabotage of shops, this autumn has so far been another round of biting back. In the last two months farms imprisoning mink have been closed down in Germany by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and found abandoned in Italy by the Animal Liberation Investigation Unit (ALIU), while various shops selling fur have given up the cruel trade.

Since the launch of the West Yorkshire Animal Rights Group (WYARG) in August Best Vintage, Room 7, Accent Clothing and TK Maxx have stopped selling fur and with Daniel Footwear promising to follow suit, focus is now on Next One Leather (the last fur shop in West Yorkshire), by targeting their store and associates (1 | 2 | 3). In the West Midlands, the Western Animal Rights Network (WARN) launched a campaign against Madeleine Ann, ensuing three shops going fur free, with demos lasting under a month (1 | 2 | 3 | Video) after products were eventually sent back to the suppliers, ending their sale of fur products (Video). On the same day Le Scarpe issued a fur-free statement leading to harassment from police and new targets established in Cheltenham, while in the capital protests have escalated as anti-fur activists locked onto the London Fur Company's stall at the London Fashion Weekend, causing the organisers to ask the company to pack up and leave (Videos: 1 | 2).

Update: After two houses of campaigners in Leeds were raided in connection with an ALF action against Next One Leather, the fur shop has gone fur-free.

Nepalese monkeys saved from vivisection

03-09-2009 19:14 | Animal Liberation | Bio-technology | World

After a global campaign that lasted for six years, the Nepal government has decided to definitely halt the breeding of monkeys for biomedical research in the USA. A letter from the Ministry of Forestry will be sent to Pravesh Man Shrestha, who has been breeding monkeys for the past five years, asking him to release the 310 rhesus monkeys back into the wild. Last year Shrestha planned to sell 25 of the 300 monkeys to the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research Center, but following a temporary court injunction, the Nepalese Parliament banned the export.

The Nepalese government repeatedly claimed on numerous occasions that the monkey farms don't exist, that any monkey farms are illegal and that Nepal doesn't have a policy of breeding monkeys for export to American vivisection laboratories. This was later proven to be all lies when the farms were exposed in August 2008 (Photos | Video | Report).

Newswire: Victory! Nepalese monkeys saved from vivisection | Gateway To Hell Campaign Update | Nepalese Parliament Orders End To Monkey Exports | Situation Update Nepal -- G2H Demands Justice for the Monkeys | Week of action for Nepal's monkeys | It's Decision Time For Nepal's Monkeys | Nepal to Export 25 monkeys 'soon' | Nepalese Monkey Export Ban Under Threat | Footage of the Nepalese Monkey Farms Released | Export banned of Nepalese monkeys for vivisection | Protest against monkey export in Belgium | Demo against Nepal's plan to export monkeys | Stop The Monkey Business -- Photos of the Monkey Farms

Campaigns: Gateway To Hell | Stop Monkey Business

Novartis CEO's hunting lodge destroyed

07-08-2009 10:27 | SHAC | Animal Liberation | World

"Dealing with HLS means dealing with US." - MFAH Austria

In an act of direct action against top Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) customer Novartis, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Daniel Vasella had his hunting lodge in the town of Bach, in Tyrol, Austria, destroyed by fire (see photos). The Militant Forces Against HLS (MFAH) claimed responsibility for the arson in an anonymous communique, calling on Vasella to sever all ties with HLS. The activists reported that Vasella butchers animals at HLS, Europe's largest and most exposed vivisection laboratory, through contracts made with Novartis, as well as butchering animals in his own private hunting estate. A spokesperson for Novartis said he has now decided to sell the property that was burnt with 60 litres of petrol.

The MFAH formed in April this year and have targeted HLS customers in France, Germany, Belgium and now Austria. They are relatively unknown and adhere to no guidelines, although are affiliated with the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). In recent months the militant group have reportedly targeted Novartis in France, burning down a sports centre and in Germany, vandalising the Vice Chairman's cars and home, returning a month later to place incendiary devices under his two cars. They have also targeted HLS customers Sandoz, Sanofi-Aventis, Bayer, Schering Plough and Pfizer.

Norwegian Whaling Ship Scuttled

28-04-2009 21:07 | Animal Liberation | Ocean Defence | World

"We came to Henningsvaer. We saw the Skarbakk. We sank the bastard" - Agenda 21

On the evening of April 23rd, the Norwegian whaling ship The Skarbakk was scuttled by environmentalists in the Lofoten islands, Norway, using the name of a 1992 United Nations Conference on the Environment. The conference detailed action proposed for a sustainable 21st century, with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society promising Norway that if they did not comply with international conservation law, then they would sink their whaling ships.

This was not an empty threat, with Captain Paul Watson supervising the sinking of two ships; the Nybraena in 1992 and the Senet in 1994. The anonymous and covert goup Agenda 21 then took over with the scuttling of the Elin-Toril in 1996. In a communique last week, the activists reported they flooded the engine room of The Skarbakk by using an adjustable spanner to open the salt-water intake valve; "to delay the killing season and to protest the continued illegal export of whale meat to Japan."

Links: United Nations Agenda 21 | Sea Shepherd Conservation Society | Ocean Defence topic page

Top HLS Investors Dump Shares

Just days before the SHAC global week of action kicked off and two weeks after Huntingdon Life Sciences' vivisection laboratories were exposed for the seventh time in ten years, revealing shocking undercover footage, HLS shareholders have sold 15% of the company (ticker symbol LSR). As a result the percentage of LSR stock held by institutions fell further from 20.1% to 17.7%, leaving them below the minimum listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange, a major target in the campaign to close down HLS.

Wells Fargo, who were one of LSR's top five institutional investors has sold all their 147,511 shares and the Bank of New York Mellon, previously third largest investor, sold most of their LSR stock dumping 149,157 shares. BNY Mellon now only have 26,634 remaining of the original 175,791 shares, with Turner Investment Partners Inc also selling their 56,880 stock.

The announcement was made the day before Animal Liberation Front (ALF) activists reported they had slashed car tryes at the home of BNY's Business Analyst in Hampshire, whilst other covert cells targeted HLS associates in solidarity with political prisoners, including the UK SHAC 7. Protests also took place at BNY and Wells Fargo's offices and executive's homes, as part of a three-month campaign based primarily in London [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 ] (England) and New York City (USA) [ 1 | 2 ].

HLS have been suffering from a serious lack of investment since December 2007, with over a dozen corporations selling all their shares in LSR. Their share price as of February 25th is $5.78, the lowest since their high of nearly $40 in September 2008. With an unstable share price, activists continue to increase the pressure against HLS shareholders, particularly largest investor Barclays.

Videos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | More: 1 | 2 | 3

SHAC 7 Letters from Prison: 1 | 2 | 3 | More

HLS Exposed - Yet Again! SHAC To Shakedown Financial Investors In The City

For the seventh time in ten years Huntingdon Life Sciences have been infiltrated and exposed, revealing shocking cruelty and footage of animal experiments filmed inside HLS during 2007 and 2008. The investigation exposes the primate trade across three continents, including individuals captured in the wild and shipped over, enduring 30 hour journeys in small cages from as far as Vietnam.

An undercover worker inside a primate unit at HLS in Cambridgeshire filmed struggling monkeys strapped to chairs and forced to inhale products. Many were housed in one cubic metre cages and then taken out to be held down by workers as tubes are forced down their throats. 217 monkeys were killed in just five studies for customers including AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithkline and the Ministry of Defence. The company are a contract testing laboratory, testing any products, on any non-human animals, for any company; pharmaceuctical, household, beauty or otherwise.

In response to the horrific footage, the imprisonment of seven SHAC campaigners for 'conspiring to blackmail' the notorious vivisection laboratory and the business' falling share price, anti-vivisectionists will be taking to the streets of London on Friday 27th February during a global week of action against HLS' financials. The SHAC City Shakedown march and protest will be for the 70,000 animals imprisoned and abused inside the labs, targeting the financial institutions who profit from and delay the companies collapse.

As the value of Europe's largest and most exposed animal testing laboratory drops by over 80% in recent months, the New York Stock Exchange now have an extra reason to again kick the abusers off the exchange. Other reasons include the labs financial problems, serious debt, animal abuse, data falsification and scientific fraud.

Demo Resources: SHAC City Shakedown Webpage | Why HLS? | The Protest | Download resources