SHAC is a legal campaign. Huntingdon Life Sciences have a criminal record - falsifying test data, animal cruelty, breaking the Good Laboratory Practise, sex crimes and so on.

There are also other campaigns dedicating time and effort to closing Huntingdon Life Sciences [HLS], Animal Aid for example.

I think it's very misleading to use "Harrassment violence and threats to cite as proof that SHAC is working.

Thousands of people were outraged by the channel 4 documentary about HLS and this has led to a public outcry and possible attacks against HLS but not all these people against HLS are SHAC or have anything to with SHAC.

There are other militant groups, SMASH HLS for example and Militant Forces Agianst Huntingdone Life Sciences.

To say that violence by SHAC is what's closing HLS is dangerous and misleading.

Great job!

I do often wonder how much impact SHAC actually has, as the campaign has been going on for some time and I don't look in to it much to be honest, but it does look like you are making things very hard for HLS!

Good luck making their lender pull out - maybe that will be the final nail in the coffin.

It's almost 2010 and HLS are still making profit and killing more animals than ever before.

This report should encourage activists to build up there campaign, really hammer HLS because one morning we will wake up and HLS is closed. HLS and the government are synonymous - there is so much going on behind the scenes with the Home Office. HLS closing will seriously fuck their industry.

HLS is europe largest research laboratory and plays a pivitol role in the UK's economy. Ten years for a campaign may seem long, but this corporation has been around since the 1950s, ten bad years is a serious injury.

Good luck to all activists, keep up the good work. stick it to them.

'You cloaked your activities in what was a hypocritical sham pretence that Shac was a vehicle for legitimate lawful protest. It was nothing of the sort."

Yeah - we all believe you SHAC

If HLS closes the "work" will just go somewhere else.Why? Because the public want vivisection.Why do they want it? Because they believe they'll die, without it.And their's not been any serious education on them.There just bypassed for a megaphone confrontation with multiple companies every week.And after all that, why would any of the public wanna engage with us?

One lab closed wouldn't end vivisection and the lives in there would be transported elsewhere.And as a prominent shac activist once told me "We don't believe HLS will close. Just that it would be bought out by a bigger company and be subsumed into that." Thats a victory??

The Cause:

If the majority of people were on our side then companies that support HLS wouldn't even do so.For fear of losing business from the public they rely on.And HLS wouldn't even exist as there would be no market for animal tested products.The consumers ultimately decide this.

Conclusion:

So what's better shouting and intimidating at the sympton(companies) or speaking to the cause(the public)?

Surely that would have been a more appropriate and honest pseudonym for HLS to hide behind?

The tide is coming in and HLS are going to drown, this is their fate and as always it simply remains a matter of time...how long is down to the acts of the individual, and if more people act it will happen quicker, but there seems to be enough action that their closure is simply a matter of time.

Despite vicious state repression, sponsored by an industry in peril, SHAC will achieve it's aim of forcing HLS into liquidaion....there can be little doubt of that.

the government will just bail them out. It will cost the government far too much to let HLS close down. Someone on here said we need to get the public on side......they have a point.....

Respect Life: SHAC sought legal advice many years ago regarding the possibility of a financial bailout from the government. It cannot happen.

Whole Picture: No member of the public I have ever spoken to (ie anyone without a vested financial interest) who has watched any of the undercover footage from HLS wants them to stay open. Yes we need the public on side - I was always impressed with how active Natasha and others at pre-raid SHAC were in vegan outreach, and from what I have seen this has been continued by post-raid activists. However we can never have enough stalls etc... so get yourself a pasting table, some leaflets and get to your local high street! Stalls, letters to local papers, flyposting etc... are all easy to do so if you have an issue with public support (or lack thereof) get of Indymedia and go do some outreach!
If you read the Plymouth report you will see that no larger companies want to buy out HLS - hence why the only person willing to do so is their own CEO.

Justice Butterfield: Weren't you one of those trolls telling us that targeting Barclays and Fortress was pointless? And didn't your cronies also say that the Plymouth report showed SHAC was ineffective?

Brian: HLS are killing less animals then ever, hence their income is down. A company $70m in debt (soon to be over $100m more) cannot really be claimed to be profitable. Seriously - read the Plymouth report - it is linked off o the SHAC website and you will see any claims of HLS being in anything but a dire situation are beyond laughable.

Clare: This page of the report shows the impact of ALL AR campaigning, so the first bullet point is about the underground campaigns rather than SHAC, however the SHAC strategy is clearly covered with reference to the lenders, customers, shareholders etc... Only one bullet point on that page directly references direct action campaigns, most of the rest relate to SHAC.

2 years ago the government would have bailed them out, but right now the British government is pandering to 2 bigger industries - the banking and the arms industry, this is where all the money is going.

Simple fact the bankers have more weight in Government than the animal testers... beside wasn't animal rights activity dealt with and finished in 2007 ;) that's what NETCU told the government. How silly that statement looks at the end of 2009.

I'm on about vivisection as a whole.And the public would support any atrocity(as they so often do) if they believe babies in hospital wards are saved because of it.If people were really really unhappy with vivisection it would of been done away with.Consumer demand(our individual choices) decide if it stays or goes. End of story.

The SHAC campaign is more about confrontation with companies,feeling big and macho,then getting the public on our side.I've experienced this first hand.Ordinary people,who fund vivisection,are completely secondary.The campaign,and the arrogant activists in it,have given the movement a bad name.But who cares so long as the shac-tivists get a name.

Btw "Observer" one message on indymedia doesn't preclude me from being out there doing activism.

More and more people are becoming disgruntled with doing AR the shac-style way.Seeing that its the most obnoxious,counter productive and ego oriented way there is.

If this is right there is no way that HLS will be able to survive into the new year - all it will need is one final push.

It will all be over by Xmas

No one is telling anyone else they have to be involved in SHAC or their style of campaigning. SHAC is one campaign, if you don't like how they do things then do them different. If you are effective in vegan outreach, or PR or whatever it is you feel is the best way then it should be irrelevant what SHAC do, as you will have the public support for your campaigning. I have spoken to many "members of the public" who love SHAC, and others who don't, I have spoken to many members of the public who love the RSPCA, and others who don't, I have spoken to many members of the public who love PeTA, and others who don't. Just because someone doesn't like the RSPCA, doesn't mean it has stopped them signing my SHAC petitions or taking SHAC leaflets...

And End Result, you are clearly a SHACwatch troll who keeps saying "it will be over by xmas" just so on December 26th you can then say "HA, SHAC said it would be over by Xmas"... You lot are weird.

whole picture: I think ironically you fail to see the whole picture, assuming you are genuine and not just a troll:

Direct action and education are complementary, not mutually exclusive.

No-one ordinarily wants to hear someone drone on about how vivisection is scientific fraud - this is dry and boring. But the demonstrations done by SHAC ( http://www.shac.net) and illegal direct action done by others get the topic out there in the media so people like you can come in and take the opportunity to educate us all with your scientific points.

So please, celebrate all sides of our beautiful, compassionate and effective movement, and focus your anger on the filthy animal abusing scumbags who deserve it.

This exposed Plymouth report is dynamite - it shows exactly how the SHAC campaign has has massive knock-on effects throughout the entire vivisection industry and throughout the whole world.

Remember that Huntingdon Life Sciences are the ones punching beagles and force-feeding them weedkiller and other chemicals, not to mention the monkey, rats, mice, fish, birds etc. that are also abused in similar ways. They are the scum that deserve all the shit they get.