UK Indymedia

World Day for Animals in Laboratories March

26-04-2009 20:22

www.wdail.org On Saturday 25th April, over two thousand anti-vivisectionists marched through London to mark World Day for Animals in Laboratories as part of a Week of Action. The day is an internationally recognised, UN sanctioned event for reflection and remembrance of the countless millions of animals that suffer and die in vivisection laboratories around the world each year in the name of science.

The march was organised to call for an end to vivisection both in the UK and elsewhere, in response to Labour's abandoned pre-election promise for an official inquiry into animal experimentation. It has been over 15 years since the anti-vivisection movement marched in London to mark World Day, successfully uniting, mobilising and attracting new activists to the movement. Campaigners in attendance included Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), SPEAK Campaigns, Stop Wickham Animal Testing (SWAT), prisoner support groups, as well as Animal Liberation Front (ALF) supporters and green anarchists.

Pictures: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Videos: 1 | 2 | Speeches: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Highlights

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Veggie Pride UK

11-04-2009 13:28

Veggie Pride UK 2009 Veggie Pride UK will be a fantastic fun-filled festival and carnival procession, celebrating and promoting compassionate, healthy, eco-friendly vegetarian and vegan lifestyles. Taking place in Birmingham City Centre on Saturday 16 May 2009. It`s the first event of it`s kind in the UK!

Transport is being arranged from the Leeds/Bradford area as well as from other locations from around the country.There`s only 5 weeks to go, so get your coach seats booked soon! See also their Urgent Appeal for Funds.

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Approved Incinerator Expansion Paves Way For Direct Action

26-02-2009 22:56

"This is a very sad day for the residents of Nottingham, a sad day for democracy and a sad day for our environment".

Jon Beresford, spokesman from Nottingham Against Incineration & Landfill (NAIL) is not impressed. Local residents and NAIL have been fighting plans to expand Nottingham’s Eastcroft incinerator for the last 4 years. Democracy has been given a severe blow when the government recently over ruled Nottingham City Council and given the green light (or not so green) for Waste Recycling Group’s Planning Application to expand the facility and pollute our environment with more toxic substances and global warming gases.

The government has given the go ahead suggesting that the third incinerator will help fight climate change. "This will help fight climate change no more than building a third runway at Heathrow" argues Beresford. "This throws the governments Climate Change Policy into complete nonsense". Waste Recycling Group, owners of Nottingham’s Eastcroft incinerator originally applied to incinerate an additional 150,000 tonnes (250,000 tonnes total) of waste a year by building a third line in Nottingham City Centre.

Latest: Eastcroft, the end of the campaign?

Video: The NAIL film (10 min. various formats) | NAIL Slideshow (avi 9M)

Feature articles: Planning Officer Recommends Rejections of Incinerator Expansion | Council backs off from incinerator expansion decision | Incinerator Public Meeting - Public Bodies pull out! | Nottingham Against Incineration and Landfill campaigners hand in petition | Planning Officer insists on wider public consultation for incinerator expansion | Campaigners meet Environment Agency over incinerator | Sneinton's Rubbish Day Out 1 - The Days Events | NAIL campaign 'banner drop' at Sneinton Boulevard | NAIL campaign hammers on... | The air that we breathe...

Links: NAIL Website | Waste Recycling Group | View planning application

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Top HLS Investors Dump Shares

25-02-2009 22:11

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

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

10-02-2009 16:07

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

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Resistance escalates with Airport 'Green' Light

12-01-2009 13:13

Both Heathrow and Manchester airports were targeted Monday with the domestic departure lounges of both airports simultaneously occupied by protesters. In London over 500 people defied airport bylaws by staging a sit-down dinner forcing airport operator BAA to close 18 check-in desks. In Manchester police used powers under Section 14 of the Public Order Act to contain up to 100 protesters on the ground floor of Terminal 3 and there was one arrest.

The Climate Rush actions were timed to coincide with MPs return to the house of commons with the government expected to announce the decision on the Heathrows airport expansion during week. Meanwhile, Greenpeace revealed that a plot of land within the proposed expansion site had been purchased in an attempt to delay the construction.

Despite media speculation that the announcement would be delayed, by Wednesday nght the media were reporting that the expanision plans have been given the green light. After the official announcement on Thursday, 'climate suffragettes' smashed the windows of the Department of Transport and on Saturday 500 flash mobbed at Heathrows terminal 5.

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Pulling in the crowds - vegan food fayre

14-09-2008 21:54

The vegan food fayre, held at Liverpool's social centre Next To Nowhere, drew the crowds last Saturday.

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Largest HLS Investor Dumps All Shares

20-07-2008 13:32

Anti-HLS campaigners this week have gained another major victory in closing down Europe's largest and most exposed vivisection laboratory Huntingdon Life Sciences, known also as Life Sciences Research, ticker symbol LSR.

The labs largest investor, Eagle Asset Finance, has sold all HLS shares worth £7,074,059, more than 4% of the company. Raymond James Financial, their parent company, made the announcement within a month of a full-scale campaign in the UK and USA including email alerts, office and home demonstrations against both companies.

Since December 2007 HLS has suffered from a serious lack of investment, with companies last year eventually selling all their shares. Shareholders included; TransAmerica Investment, Frontier Capital, SAC Capital, Axa, Wachovia, Alternative Investment Partners, Rathbone Brothers, Dresdner Bank, Deutsche Bank, La Grange Capital, Robeco Investment Management, Fairfield Greenwich Associates & BNP Paribas [1 | 2 | 3].

Links: SHAC | Win Animal Rights | Close HLS | Indymedia UK SHAC topic page

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SHAC Prepares For National March & Rally

11-07-2008 09:30

On the 12th July, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) hold national march and rally [Report | Pics] to show the mass opposition to the fraudulent vivisection industry and the vile 'experiments' at Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). SHAC is an international campaign aiming to close HLS, the largest contract testing laboratory in Europe.

The rally in the park included info stalls and food/drink from Veggies before campaigners marched through Peterborough. The demonstration ended in Alconbury, so to meet the animal abusers who kill 500 animals every day of the week to test products such as weed killer, food colourings and drugs.

Details: Webpage for the rally, march and demo - Info and times | Rally in the park - Map and meeting point

Reports from last demo in April: Pictures: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Video: 1 | 2

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Badgers Saved In England, What About Wales?

07-07-2008 19:11

The Secretary of State for DEFRA, Hilary Benn, announced today that he has decided against a cull of badgers in England to control TB in cattle. The decision came after protest actions last month with a rally attended by over 300 supporters and the sabotaging of five offices owned by the National Farmers Union (NFU) and the Farmers Union of Wales (FUW). Mr Benn also has resounding public support for sparing badgers. A DEFRA public consultation on the issue received submissions from 47,000 respondents, ninety-five per cent of whom opposed a cull. Despite this, The Welsh Assembly has voted to allow badger culling to go ahead in Wales.

The government-appointed Independent Scientific Group announced in June 2007 - following a decade of research - that killing badgers would not significantly reduce bovine TB and could make matters worse. It also declared that TB probably first spreads from cattle to badgers, where it remains stable, provided the badgers are undisturbed. Research has demonstrated that culling causes massive disturbance and has the effect of increasing the incidence and spread of the disease. Benn has come under unrelenting pressure from the farming industry to give permission for the destruction of around 170,000 badgers - half the population.

Newswire: Welsh Demo for the Badgers, Colwyn Bay, 26th July | Benn confirms Badgers saved in England | Badgers saved in England, but not in Wales | Badgers spared - Thank you ALF! | Anti-Badger Cull Demo Action Report | ALF target farming union offices over badger cull | Rally For Badgers - Stop The Cull!

Links: Viva | Animal Liberation Front (ALF) | Animal Aid | The Badger Trust