Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Support Sarah Whitehead

Support Sarah | 05.07.2008 01:12 | SHAC | Animal Liberation | Repression | South Coast

Sarah Whitehead is a committed vegan activist who has dedicated her life to saving animals and helping people. She worked tirelessly as a nurse whilst rescuing and rehoming abused and neglected animals, as well as campaigning against the notorious Huntingdon Life Sciences. She is not someone to sit back and let animals be tortured and abused, she stands up and fights wherever she sees injustice and never puts herself first.



Sarah had been informed about an abused beagle. It was living outside in a wooden cage, and was muzzled at all times except for when it got to eat. The dog was made to wear an electric shock collar and the neighbours informed Sarah that they had witnessed beatings from its owners. The neighbours had also heard the dog screaming on many occasions.

The RSPCA had been called numerous times, but they failed to help this dog and left it with owners who had on occasions tied it to a radiator.

All avenues had been explored in trying to lift this animal from hell. The RSPCA, despite numerous complaints and visits to the owners, did nothing; even the police had been called by neighbours, but they just told them to call the RSPCA.

What else was Sarah to do, but rescue the beagle herself? How else could this beagle be saved? Knowing how much it was suffering, could anyone just leave this beagle to live in pain?

Sarah was already on a suspended sentence for rescuing animals from a notorious puppy farmer in West Sussex (see  http://www.sarconline.co.uk/porter) which meant that if she re-offended within two years she would be sent to prison for that "crime". Even knowing this risk to her freedom, Sarah put the dog's life and well-being first and lifted him to freedom.

Unknown to Sarah she was under police surveillance during the rescue as part of Operation Achilles and the campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences. Police followed her and watched her rescue the beagle, and then watched her take the dog to its second stage of its journey to it's new home.

However, once the beagle was handed over, instead of following the beagle in order to return it to its owner, they carried on following Sarah.
Luckily this means that the beagle is still safe and living in a loving home.

Some time later once the police had finished following Sarah around she was arrested, the police weirdly tried to accuse her of stealing the dog so that she could sell it for £500 to raise money for SHAC (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty -  http://www.shac.net) Where this sum of £500 came from is anyone's guess and it shows how little the police understand the concept of animal rights!

Sarah went on trial for burglary in June 2008. She pleaded not guilty to the offence as she believed she had not committed a crime in rescuing this beagle. She told the court she believed she had acted reasonably and honest and that it was the right thing to do because the police and RSPCA had failed to save this dog. Statements from the neighbours were read in court which described the cruelty to the dog, the beatings, and the screams but bizarrely the jury took the view that Sarah should have left the dog where it was and she was found guilty.

The judge sentenced Sarah to two years in prison, nine months of this is from the suspended sentence she was on, and the extra 1 1/3 years is for rescuing the beagle.



Before going to prison, Sarah campaigned for the following groups, so please check out their websites:

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty -  http://www.shac.net
Southern Animal Rights Coalition -  http://www.sarconline.co.uk
Greyhound Action -  http://www.greyhoundaction.org.uk
Uncaged -  http://www.uncaged.co.uk
BUAV -  http://www.buav.org
Vegan Prisoners Support Group -  http://www.vpsg.org
Dr Hadwen Trust -  http://www.drhadwentrust.org.uk

Support Sarah
- Homepage: http://myspace.com/supportsarah

Additions

WRITE TO SARAH...

05.07.2008 09:50

You can write to Sarah at:

Sarah Whitehead VM7684
HMP Bronzefield,
Woodthorpe Road,
Ashford,
Middx
TW15 3JZ.
United Kingdom

vpsg


Changing Tactics

05.07.2008 10:13

All activists should learn from this. When an animal is rescued assume you are under surveillence. Do not take it straight to it's new home. Arrange for cut-outs who can spirit the animals away. If we have more than one cut-out in a chain we can break the police surveillence chain and the animals will remain free.

Something similar happenedto Keith Mann when he resuced a load of mice, they were kept too long in their first refuge and the police got hold of them. If we risk jail then we should make sure that the animals will get away regardless.

The police are so pissed off that they can't return this animal to it's hell that they have put an appeal out on their website along with phone numbers to get the dog back!

Well done Sarah for bringing this dog to freedom, and well done all on the underground railroad.

Heroes the lot of you. When we win this war against torture and terrorism people will look to you as true heroes much like we look at those who freed human slaves as true heroes.

Adapting


Comments

Hide the following 7 comments

contact

05.07.2008 08:07

is there an address inside yet that we can write to her at to send messages of solidarity?

viral


2 years for nicking a dog?

05.07.2008 20:52

thats fucking mad that is.

gary blimey


Not just nicking a dog...

06.07.2008 14:44

It's called burglary of a dwelling and when you have "form" for it you get time.

ViewFinder


Just saving an abused individual...

06.07.2008 17:47

It's called burglary of a dwelling and when you have "form" for it you get time. Ask the prisoners that freed slaves using the Underground Railroad; nothing has changed.

ViewFinder2


changing tactics?

07.07.2008 09:43

what is a cut-out?

?


Cruelty??

13.07.2008 08:29

The beagles owners were left alone by the RSPCA after 3 inspections and having seen a photo of the dog in the local press he hardly looked mistreated. From what I hear the neighbours didnt like the dog living next door as they slept during the day and could hear him when he barked so they complained about his barking etc so much so that his owners were forced to take measures such as the bark collar and even called in a dog behaviorist to try to help the beagle have a happy life but instead the neighbours just used Sarah to get the dog gone for them by claiming cruelty. The wooden cage was actually a kennel and large decked area for him to run and play in, the tying to radiator was merely to calm him down before he was let off his lead in the lounge as he used to jump all over the furniture like puppies do (both recommended by behaviourist), the muzzle was merely used to stop him chewing the wood of his kennel as he had previously got a splinter from doing it (recommended by RSPCA) and he could actually drink with it on, and having been walked 2-3 times a day by the owners and family he was hardly neglected. People tell people what they want to hear....if you believe in rescuing animals you need to make sure that someone isnt playing on your passion and dedication and painting the half a picture needed for their own gains!!!

Viewfinder3


Why support this ugly campaign?

27.10.2010 14:54

Sarah Whitehead and her fellow defendants conducted a hateful and unpleasant campaign of harrassment that led working people to fear for their safety, accused them of being paedophiles and made their lives a misery. The defendants seem to be wholly without any sense of the misery they have caused, or even to take some kind of sadistic pleasure in it. Their campaign purports to be FOR animals, but really it is AGAINST people. Their narcissistic belief that they are better than the rest of humanity shines through every malicious and stupid act they take.

James Heartfield
mail e-mail: Heartfield@blueyonder.co.uk
- Homepage: http://www.heartfield.org


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech