|
Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) is a contract animal-testing company founded in 1952 in England, now with facilities in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire and Eye, Suffolk in the UK; New Jersey in the U.S.; and in Japan. The largest such commercial operation in Europe, it conducts tests on around 75,000 animals every year — including rats, rabbits, pigs, dogs, and primates[1] — testing pharmaceutical products, agricultural chemicals, industrial chemicals, and foodstuffs on behalf of private clients worldwide.[2][3][4][5][6] Image File history File links HLSlogo. ...
Huntingdon is a town in the county of Cambridgeshire in East Anglia, England. ...
Official language(s) English de facto Capital Trenton Largest city Newark Area Ranked 47th - Total 8,729 sq mi (22,608 km²) - Width 70 miles (110 km) - Length 150 miles (240 km) - % water 14. ...
Huntingdon has been under intense pressure since 1999, when a group of British animal rights activists set up Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), an international campaign to close the company down. The campaign was started after film shot secretly inside Huntingdon, and shown on British television, showed staff punching and laughing at the animals in their care. [7] Since then the company has suffered a severe financial downturn and several of its staff and customers have been subject to direct action that has sometimes been illegal and even violent. A civet, or sea fox, photographed in the Zigong Peoples Zoo, Sichuan, 2001. ...
A monkey inside Huntingdon Life Sciences in the United States. ...
Direct action is a form of political activism which seeks immediate remedy for perceived ills, as opposed to indirect actions such as electing representatives who promise to provide remedy at some later date. ...
History Originally the company concentrated on nutrition, veterinary and biochemical research. An expansion of services in the late 1950s led to the testing of pharmaceuticals, crop protection products, food additives and a variety of industrial and consumer chemicals. This set the company on its present path to becoming a leading provider of toxicology testing.
HLS's managing director, Brian Cass, was awarded the CBE in 2002 for services to medical research and in May 2003, the company was accredited by the Association For Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC). [8] The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority, these are Knight Grand Cross or Dame Grand Cross (GBE) Knight Commander...
Controversy
A protest march against Huntingdon Life Sciences. Huntingdon is criticised by animal rights and animal welfare groups for documented instances of animal abuse and for the wide range of substances it tests on animals, particularly non-medical products. Image File history File links Shacdemo. ...
Image File history File links Shacdemo. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
The company's labs have been infiltrated by undercover animal rights activists several times since the 1980s. In 1997, film secretly recorded inside HLS in the UK by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) showed serious breaches of animal-protection laws, including a beagle puppy being held up by the scruff of the neck and repeatedly punched in the face, and animals being taunted. The investigation led to the company's Home Office licence being revoked in April 1997 for six months. At the time, the company's shares stood at £1.13: within three years they were worth 2.5 pence. Huntingdon officials said that the breaches were isolated cases. [9] People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals logo People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is the largest and possibly most well recognized animal rights organization in the world. ...
The Beagle is a medium-sized dog breed. ...
On July 24, 1997, Home Office minister George Howarth told the House of Commons: "Shortcomings relating to the care, treatment and handling of animals, and delegation of health checking to new staff of undetermined competence, demonstrate that the establishment was not appropriately staffed and that animals were not at all times provided with adequate care." According to Zoe Broughton, the activist who filmed the incidents, three of the laboratory technicians responsible were suspended from HLS the day after the film was broadcast on Channel 4 television as "It's a Dog's Life." Two of the men seen hitting and shaking dogs were found guilty under the Animals Act of 1911 of "cruelly terrifying dogs." It was the first time laboratory technicians had been prosecuted for animal cruelty in the UK. [7] George Edward Howarth (born 29 June 1949) is a politician in the United Kingdom. ...
Type Lower House Speaker of the House of Commons Leader of the House of Commons Michael Martin, (Non-affiliated) since October 23, 2000 Harriet Harman, QC, (Labour) since June 28, 2007 Shadow Leader of the House of Commons Theresa May, PC, (Conservative) since December 6, 2005 Members 646 Political groups...
Since then, the company's labs have been accused by animal rights supporters of a similar offence in the United States. In 1998, an undercover investigator for PETA used a camera hidden in her glasses to make 50 hours of videotape of the HLS laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey. She also made four 90-minute audiotapes, photocopied 8,000 company documents, and copied the company's client list. Some of the film she shot showed a monkey being dissected while still alive and, according to PETA, conscious. The president of HLS in New Jersey, Alan Staple, said the monkey was alive but sedated during the dissection. [10]
Huntingdon has been supported by the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. A spokesman for Blair told the BBC: "The prime minister is very pro-science in relation to this." [11] The company has argued that if their research is stopped in Britain, it may be moved elsewhere, to a country with less rigorous animal-protection legislation and with a loss of British jobs. A prime minister is the most senior minister of a cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. ...
For other people of the same name, see Tony Blair (disambiguation) Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born May 6, 1953)[1] is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, Leader of the Labour Party, and Member of Parliament for the constituency...
Protest and Intimidation -
The Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, (SHAC) campaign is based in the UK and U.S., and aims to close the company down. According to its website, the campaign's methods are restricted to non-violent “direct action”, as well as lobbying and demonstrations. It targets not only HLS itself, but any company, institution, or person doing business with the laboratory, whether as clients, suppliers, or even disposal and cleaning services. A monkey inside Huntingdon Life Sciences in the United States. ...
A monkey inside Huntingdon Life Sciences in the United States. ...
Direct action is a form of political activism which seeks immediate remedy for perceived ills, as opposed to indirect actions such as electing representatives who promise to provide remedy at some later date. ...
Despite its stated non-violent position, SHAC has been accused of encouraging arson and violent assault. Huntingdon's managing director, Brian Cass, was attacked in February 2001 by three men armed with pickaxe handles and CS gas. [12]. SHAC and Animal Liberation Front activists are known to have been responsible for harassment; trespass; vandalism; and intimidation, with death-threat letters and hoax bomb threats. [13] The Daily Mail cites as an example the sending of 500 letters to the neighbours of a company manager who did business with HLS. The letter warned parents to keep their children away from the man because, it alleged, he had raped the letter writer when she was a child. The police informed all 500 households that the allegations were false. [14] The Skyline Parkway Motel in Afton, Virginia after an arson fire on July 9, 2004. ...
Brian Cass Brian Cass is the managing director of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), an animal-testing research company based in Huntingdon, England, and New Jersey in the U.S.. HLS has been the target since 1999 of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), a campaign run by British and American animal...
Beagles removed by British ALF activists from a testing laboratory owned by the Boots Group. ...
Harassment refers to a wide spectrum of offensive behavior. ...
“Unlawful entry†redirects here. ...
Vandalism is the conspicuous defacement or destruction of a structure, a symbol or anything else that goes against the will of the owner/governing body. ...
The results of these actions have sometimes been more serious. Threats have been made against the Chiron corporation which animal rights groups say has connections with Huntingdon. The corporation received an e-mail from a group calling itself "Revolutionary Cells," which said "We gave all of the customers the chance, the choice, to withdraw their business from HLS. Now you all will have to reap what you have sown. All customers and their families are considered legitimate targets." This was followed by two bomb blasts at the corporation's headquarters in Emeryville, California. [15] There is no proven link between Revolutionary Cells and SHAC. Chiron Corporation (NASDAQ: CHIR) is a biotechnology firm based in Emeryville, California. ...
The city of Emeryville highlighted within Alameda County Emeryville is a small city located in Alameda County, California, in the United States. ...
Animal rights supporters have been served with a High Court injunction preventing them from harassing Chiron's UK staff in or around their homes. [16]
In May 2007 32 people were arrested in relation to what police sources described as "an international campaign of fund raising, physical violence and other acts of intimidation against secondary targets connected to Huntingdon Life Sciences including customers, suppliers, shareholders and non-executive directors of other companies."[17]
Effect of campaign Campaigns against Huntingdon claim to have succeeded in harming the company financially. In 2000, SHAC obtained a list of HLS shareholders, including the names of beneficial owners: anonymous individuals and companies who bought shares in the name of a third party. These included the British Labour Party pension funds, Rover cars, and the London Borough of Camden[citation needed]. The Labour Party is a political party in the United Kingdom. ...
// Rover was a British automobile manufacturer and later a marque based at the former Austin Longbridge plant in Birmingham. ...
The London Borough of Camden is an inner-London borough created in 1965 to replace the metropolitan boroughs of Hampstead, Holborn, St Pancras. ...
The list was passed to the Sunday Telegraph, which published it on December 3, 2000, and several beneficial owners disposed of their shares, including the Labour Party. Two weeks later, an equity stake of 32 million shares was placed on the London Stock Exchange for one penny each and HLS quotes crashed. The Royal Bank of Scotland closed HLS's bank account and the British government arranged for the state-owned Bank of England to give them an account, because no other bank would do business with them. The British Banking Association said "Huntingdon Life Sciences are in a nightmare situation," [18] is the 337th day of the year (338th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Source by Greyworld, in the new LSE building Paternoster Square. ...
The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (Scottish Gaelic: [1]) is one of the retail banking subsidiaries of Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc, which together with NatWest, provides branch banking facilities in the UK. Royal Bank of Scotland has around 700 branches, mainly in Scotland though there are branches in...
Headquarters Coordinates , , Governor Mervyn King Central Bank of United Kingdom Currency Pound Sterling ISO 4217 Code GBP Base borrowing rate 5. ...
On December 21, 2000, HLS was dropped from the New York Stock Exchange because of its share collapse: its market capitalization had fallen below NYSE limits and the NYSE did not accept HLS's revised business plan. [19] On March 29, 2001, Huntingdon lost both of its market makers and its place on the main platform of the London Stock Exchange. December 21 is the 355th day of the year (356th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), nicknamed the Big Board, is a New York City-based stock exchange. ...
Market capitalization, or market cap, is a measurement of corporate or economic size equal to the stock price times the number of shares outstanding of a public company. ...
March 29 is the 88th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (89th in leap years). ...
Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ...
A market maker is a person or a firm which quotes a buy and sell price in a financial instrument or commodity hoping to make a profit on the turn or the bid/offer spread. ...
HLS later decided to move its financial centre to the United States to take advantage of stricter U.S. securities laws, which allow greater anonymity for shareholders. It incorporated in Maryland as Life Sciences Research, Inc. and was saved from bankruptcy when its largest shareholder, American investment bank Stephens, Inc, gave the company a $15-million loan. HLS remains in $87.5-million debt, however [citation needed] and, according to SHAC, leaked documents show the company to be financially unstable. [20] On September 7, 2005, the New York stock exchange asked Life Sciences Research/HLS to delay its listing. The company was listed on the junior OTC bulletin board since its move out of the UK. The NYSE offered no reason for the delay, but The Guardian reported it was "after animal rights extremists stepped up their activity in the US". [21] and on February 4, 2006, the company lost its only listed market maker, Legacy Trading. As a result, it could no longer trade on the OTC Bulletin Board. As of December 2006, Life Sciences Research is listed on the NYSE Arca electronic exchange. [22] Official language(s) None (English, de facto) Capital Annapolis Largest city Baltimore Area Ranked 42nd - Total 12,407 sq mi (32,133 km²) - Width 90 miles (145 km) - Length 249 miles (400 km) - % water 21 - Latitude 37° 53′ N to 39° 43′ N - Longitude 75° 03′ W to 79° 29...
is the 250th day of the year (251st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ...
Extremism is the act of taking a belief, political view or ideology to its most literal extreme. ...
is the 35th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
On the 4th of June 2006, Dresdner Bank, Huntingdon Life Sciences largest institutional shareholder with 4.7% [1] of the companies shares issued a statement to the effect that they had sold all of their shares after pressure from the SHAC campaign. [2] [citation needed] A primate in Huntingdon Life Sciences, covertly photographed by SHAC Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) is an international animal rights campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), the UKs largest animal-testing laboratory, which is based in Huntingdon, England and in New Jersey in the United States. ...
See also The international trade in primates sees 32,000 wild-caught primates sold on the international market every year. ...
Nafovannys maternity clinic. ...
Filmed by PETA, Covance primate-testing lab, Vienna, Virginia, 2004-5. ...
References - ^ 2006 APHIS Report for Huntingdon Life Sciences
- ^ "A controversial laboratory", BBC News, January 18, 2001.
- ^ "New bill clamps down on animal activist activity", Drug Researcher, November 17, 2006.
- ^ "From push to shove" Southern Poverty Law Group Intelligence Report, Fall 2002.
- ^ "Diaries of despair", xenodiaries.org, Uncaged Campaigns, retrieved June 18, 2006. A report about the transplanation of pig hearts and kidneys onto the necks, abdomens, and chests of monkeys and baboons captured from the wild. The experiments were carried out by Imutran Ltd, a subsidiary of Novartis Pharma AG, in conjunction with Cambridge University. They took place at Huntingdon Life Sciences.
- ^ Townsend, Mark. "Exposed: secrets of the animal organ lab", The Observer, April 20, 2003.
- ^ a b "Seeing Is Believing – cruelty to dogs at Huntingdon Life Sciences", The Ecologist, March 2001.
- ^ Accredited Organisations, Association For Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care, accessed March 6, 2007
- ^ A controversial laboratory, BBC News, January 18, 2001.
- ^ Kolata, Gina. "Tough Tactics In One Battle Over Animals In the Lab," The New York Times, March 24, 1998.
- ^ Pressure builds on animal tests lab, BBC News, January 26, 2001.
- ^ Jail for lab boss attacker, BBC News, August 16 2001
- ^ Counting the cost of fear, Scotland on Sunday, 9 March 2003
- ^ "The Animals of Hatred", Daily Mail, October 15, 2003.
- ^ Animal rights 'terror' rattles biotechs' cage, San Francisco Business Times, February 6 2004
- ^ Protesters banned at staff homes, BBC News, February 9 2004
- ^ Police arrest 32 animal rights activists, Financial Times, May 1 2007
- ^ Huntingdon Life Sciences financial report 2002.
- ^ Potter, Will. "Green is the New Red", Counterpunch, May 4, 2006.
- ^ Analyze This!, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, accessed March 6 2007.
- ^ Huntingdon delays listing after attacks, The Guardian, September 8 2005
- ^ NYSE Arca electronic exchange
A marmoset inside Cambridge University, filmed by BUAV The use of primates in experiments at Cambridge University is controversial, first coming to widespread public attention in the UK following undercover investigations lasting ten months in 1998 by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV), the results of which...
Further reading |
Feeds |
Contact