Protest at animal test lab's insurer
By Valerie Elliott, Countryside Editor



ANIMAL welfare campaigners are concentrating on an insurance company in their long battle to force the closure of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS).
Protesters demonstrated yesterday at branches of Marsh UK, part of the multinational Marsh and McLennan group based in New York, to persuade the company to cancel cover for HLS, a laboratory that conducts tests on animals. The action is the latest ploy in a three-year campaign by Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac).

Protests and intimidation of staff by activists have prompted companies and financial institutions to sever their links with HLS, including its previous insurer, the Beckett Group, and the Royal Bank of Scotland, which closed the company’s account and called in an £11 million loan.

Marsh UK refused to confirm any link with the research laboratory. An official said: “Marsh’s policy is not to make any comments on its clients; therefore we cannot confirm or deny any relationship with Huntingdon Life Sciences.”

In Glasgow, a group from Clydeside Animal Action demonstrated outside Marsh UK’s city centre offices. Helen Robinson, the organiser, said: “The majority of staff and customers at Marsh would be horrified if they realised they were associated with an organisation that tortures animals.”

David Dawson, a Shac spokesman, said that the campaign had made companies unwilling to be associated with HLS. “We won’t go away until Marsh follows suit,” he said. “No business in the UK can exist without insurance and if we are able to embarrass Marsh UK into pulling out of their agreement with HLS, we believe they would find it very difficult to find other insurers and would be forced to close.”

There was no comment by HLS yesterday. Its staff have had death threats, hate mail and abusive calls.