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.

SHAC Campaign Update: July 2009

SHAC | 01.08.2009 20:32 | SHAC | Animal Liberation | Health | Social Struggles | World

Its time to put more pressure on HLS' customers, while HLS are in a weak position. Lets finish what we have begun and with your support, we believe we can.



HLS' FINANCIAL POSITION

Loss of 2 contracts

Within the last 12 months, the situation for HLS has become critical. Due to the recession and campaign pressure, HLS have suffered a great deal financially. HLS lost two major contracts with customers recently which has set them back.

Share price and recession

The past year have seen their share price drop by 75%, from just under $40 to around $8. This drop has not just been due to the recession and exchange rates, but also to global campaigning against their shareholder base and customers. While all companies have suffered a loss of share price in the recession, it is only HLS that have dropped by such a huge amount. Other companies such as Covance have not had their share price drop by 75%.

Loss of top shareholders, Baker Buyout:

HLS have lost their top 5 shareholders in the past 4 months, including Barclays, Bank of New York Mellon and Highbridge Capital. Due to their share price crashing, Baker has even proposed buying out the remaining shares at a fixed price of $8.50, to sell the a newly formed company 'Lion Holdings, Inc.', an entity that is controlled by Andrew Baker, Chairman and CEO of Life Sciences. As a result, remaining shareholders are now filing two lawsuits against HLS as the price is unfair on those who paid a lot more. This merger deal costing over $110 million, yet more funding will put further financial debt on Baker and will make HLS (LSR) a private company.

£72 million debt:

HLS (LSR) are still £72 million in debt and their first published accounts for this year show a revenue decrease of 24%. In addition, none of the HLS directors were able to have bonuses last year. Brian Cass has had to cut jobs inside the UK labs and has himself said the future for HLS looks “uncertain”.

2011 loan:

HLS have borrowed a large sum of money due to financial problems, and this has to be repaid by 2011. However HLS will need to secure a loan to do so and currently are not able to get one. Intensive targeting of shareholders has sent out a strong message to all prospective investors that they will be targeted around the world if they provide financial support to HLS and so this has made it extremely difficult for them. This is one of the reasons why Baker is trying to make HLS (LSR) a private company.

HLS struggling:

Because of HLS’ poor financial situation and continuous pressure, we’ve been told by a financial expert that if HLS were to close one of their customers in the next 12 months, they will probably close down – and if they lost two customers, they would definitely close down.

HLS need a $60million loan to pay off all their debts, which currently looks very unlikely that they will get it. They are likely to go bankrupt before this point if they lost an important customer.


OUR CAMPAIGN

Demos:

Several co-ordinated Global Weeks of Action and ‘SHAC Mondays’ introduced over the past year to focus global targeting of specific customers, suppliers and other important targets. In 2008 there were over 800 demos globally against HLS. An increase on demos in 2007, despite draconian measures, show trials and long sentences being given to a few SHAC campaigners! With your support, the campaign continues.

HLS exposed again in 2008:

Now exposed 7 times in 12 years. As a result of this we are asking all groups to focus mainly on HLS’ top customers, such as Novartis, Astra Zeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Sanofi Aventis, Bayer and so on.


SHAC IS GETTING STRONGER

SHAC North America:

SHAC North America has been launched at this week's US AR 2009 conference in LA, and with campaigning and more groups growing across Europe, South America and the UK, it time to put more pressure on these customers, which are the life blood of HLS. NO CUSTOMERS = NO HLS. The campaign is currently in a strong position and we have an excellent opportunity to close HLS while they are more vulnerable.

But we need your help to close HLS and help the animals inside this hell-hole, we need a concerted push and more pressure put on HLS' top customers now and or the follow months. Please organise a demo in your area, we can supply you with campaign resources and put you in touch with fellow campaigners and like-minded people across the globe.

Also look at our Diary Dates page for upcoming demos, including a UK national demo at Highgate rabbit farm, a rabbit breeder who supply HLS and the next Global Week of Action in September:
 http://www.shac.net/action/diary_dates.html

See you on the streets!

Thank you all for your continued support over this long campaign, it has been a long and hard fight, but it not a fight we can shy away from, from the animals' sake and for humanity we will not stop until our job is done. Its up to all of us whether HLS closes sooner or later. It time to continue forward and fight harder then ever for the animals in HLS - until all are free!

UK targets:  http://www.shac.net/action/uk_targets/index.html
Global targets:  http://www.shac.net/action/customers/clients/index.html

We especially need to concentrate on HLS' main customers now, again thank you for your support. Lets make it happen!

SHAC
- e-mail: info@shac.net
- Homepage: http://www.shac.net

Comments

Display the following 35 comments

  1. And the whole world equates AR with violent nutters — The Return of the Realist
  2. Not to mention — Brendan
  3. To the adove troll comments — AR Moderate
  4. Oh look it's NETCU — Realist
  5. Trollocks — Rocker
  6. reply to Trollocks — ex-pacifist
  7. Have SHAC failed? — Steve Discombe
  8. A word on violence — Lynn Sawyer
  9. To Rocker — Lynn Sawyer
  10. Peace is all well and good, until a baton makes contact with your skull... — Green & Black
  11. PETA, Uncaged, RSPCA — SHAC sceptic
  12. How do you know — Steve Discombe
  13. to SHAC sceptic — veg@n
  14. There it is in black and white - the arrogance — Confirmed SHAC sceptic
  15. But... — Steve Discombe
  16. Not what the Judge said — Justice Butterfield
  17. Not the movement — ex activist
  18. chalk and vegan cheese — SparkyTheClown
  19. People should do what they think is right — Lynn Sawyer
  20. Why have you ignored my simple question? — Steve Discombe
  21. So this is what is amounts to, Lazyness and apathy? — Green & Black
  22. To ex activist — Lynn Sawyer
  23. The SHAC debate - a pragmatic anarchist perspective — Paul Vegan Anarchist
  24. Why do I bother? — ex activist
  25. Why do you bother? — Green & Black
  26. The SHAC debate - another pragmatic anarchist perspective — veg@n
  27. It's pretty simple — Steve Discombe
  28. response — Lynn Sawyer
  29. Re my last post — Lynn Sawyer
  30. Re letter writing — Lynn Sawyer
  31. I really can't be bothered to get into this one... — veg@n (ex-reformist)
  32. Meanwhile in Switzerland — Cook coo
  33. to veg@n — Lynn Sawyer
  34. To Cook Coo — Dave
  35. To Dave — Green & Black
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