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SHAC ENDS. We made history... The future is ours.

SHAC | 15.10.2014 12:52 | Animal Liberation

SHAC (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty) has been the biggest and most effective grassroots animal rights campaign the world has ever seen. Since we started, thousands of people across the globe have taken up the fight to close down Europe’s largest animal testing laboratory; HLS (Huntingdon Life Sciences).

Numerous undercover investigations have revealed the horrors taking place within the lab – animals being poisoned, primates being cut open without anaesthetic, puppies being punched in the face. HLS has become synonymous with cruelty and murder.

During the past decade, compassionate and fearless people have joined SHAC and dedicated themselves to saving those animals. We’ve all played our part in this revolutionary campaign. Through determination, anger and groundbreaking new tactics, we’ve decimated the finances and reputation of the massive multinational corporation HLS. With intelligence and hard work we’ve consistently found out which companies have been working with or funding HLS and then made them a target. As a result, hundreds of companies have pulled out of dealing with the lab, including some of the world’s largest and most powerful financial institutions.

Huntingdon Life Sciences have become the most protested animal testing lab in history. Thousands of actions have taken place against them – in one year alone, almost 800 demos took place.

Alongside the legal protests carried out by SHAC activists, there have been relentless and hard hitting ALF actions carried out against HLS’ suppliers, customers and financial backers. Courageous freedom fighters have risked breaking the law to commit direct action in the name of animals. In one example, 129 rabbits were liberated from Huntingdon’s supplier Highgate Rabbit Farm. On other occasions, 14 beagle dogs were liberated from HLS’ US site and a boat belonging to a Bank of America executive (they were providing financial services to HLS) was sunk, along with the message “money means nothing - life means everything”. These are just a few examples of the hundreds of actions that have taken place. Without the bravery and creativity of these activists, all of those rabbits and dogs would have been murdered in useless experiments and Bank of America would no doubt have continued supporting HLS.

It’s through this innovative combination of SHAC’s high profile lawful protest activity and the ALF’s unconventional, but highly effective tactics, that the campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences has been so successful.

Right now HLS is over $100 million in debt, is struggling to win or keep customers, has steadily decreasing year end profits and is at serious risk of bankruptcy. The only reason they’ve survived this long is because of the UK government.

Due to vested interests in the vivisection and pharmaceutical industries and seeing the affect animal rights campaigners were having on HLS, the UK government stepped in and saved the laboratory from closure with a multi-million pound loan and private banking and insurance facilities. The authorities have also increasingly targeted SHAC campaigners with harassment, arrests, raids and imprisonment. Since 2007 dozens of activists have been arrested, with some receiving lengthy prison sentences – in some cases, up to 11 years. Campaigners have also been given extreme bail and licence conditions to silence them from speaking out against animal testing and isolate them from the animal rights movement.

SHAC was no longer just fighting HLS; we were fighting the government – a much larger and more powerful enemy.

Despite this, SHAC continued to resist repression and campaign against HLS, raising awareness of the 70 thousand animals locked away behind the barbed wire fences.

But, after more than 10 years of organising the SHAC campaign and having sent shockwaves throughout the entire vivisection industry, our opposition has evolved. The global animal abuse and legal landscapes have changed and so it’s time for us too, to change our tactics.

With the onslaught of government repression against animal rights activists in the UK, it’s time to reassess our methods, obstacles and opponent’s weaknesses, to build up our solidarity network for activists and to start healing the affects of repression.

Although we’re announcing the closure of the SHAC campaign, it will always be an important part of our history and a reminder of the ingenuity and power of the animal rights movement. SHAC will continue to inspire activists around the world to join the struggle against animal testing and take on those who profit from abuse and exploitation.

It’s our knowledge and ability to develop and focus our tactics in the most effective ways, which will continue to make us a threat to the animal exploitation industries.

With the fires of liberation and justice burning in our hearts, we look to the future.

Now the question everyone should be asking is...

What are we going to do next?

SHAC
Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty

SHAC

Comments

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There are many types of victory

15.10.2014 13:55

We can all be proud of the many fantastic things achieved by SHAC, HLS is now so close to closure we can be sure it will no longer be torturing innocent animals a year from now, that alone is a fantastic victory however we achieved so much more than that.

We empowered and inspired a generation of new activists
We raised the understanding of vivisection to an unparraleled level in this country and others
We ensured animal torturers got the harsh light of publicity they deserved
We bought the same fear to HLS workers they bought to animals

We never gave up and we won.

Proud to have been involved


We never give up and we never lose

15.10.2014 14:10

You have given up - the campaign has ended
You have lost - SHAC had a single target, to close HLS, that hasn't happended and is unlikely to happen any time soon.

Stop trying to spin that as success. SHAC began to fail when it ceased to be a AR campaign and became a funding mechanism for some people's lifestyle.

NN


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Debbie Vincent

15.10.2014 15:32

Once Debbie gave up her soul to the devil in return for a shorter prison term the closure of SHAC was only a matter of time. Greg was right in his last letter when he called the current organisers, "not as commited as they need to be" but I bet he never anticipated one of them would sell out the movement to get a few less months in jail.

Unhappy


@unhappy

15.10.2014 19:33

Can you be a bit more specific please?

SHAC supporter


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IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Vincent

16.10.2014 10:59

The irony is when Vincent gave up the SHAC details the resulting cut in the sentence was less than three months. She would have got eight years but the judge cut it to six because of her ill health so her grassing didn't even help in the end. At least Natasha Simpkins has kept her mouth shut otherwise there would be others doing time for the burning of Dr Vasella’s holiday chalet in the Tyrol.

Will remember


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Excellent

20.10.2014 08:57

Always nice to see the work paying off.

2Sam crew


please expand

21.10.2014 16:41

To "unhappy" - please expand on your allegations about Debbie Vincent. Making vague accusations against someone currently imprisoned for AR campaigning is not helpful. Debbie deserves our solidarity.

jeed


@unhappy

28.10.2014 17:51

You are scum, whether you are just some fucked up arsehole or a state/pharma industry shill - as a personal friend of Debbie I know how much utter bullshit that is. But nobody should be ever spreading rumours like that around without evidence, full stop and I'd ask the moderators to delete the unfounded allegation.

anon


Who is '@Unhappy'

07.01.2015 12:48

Cop, screw, or do you bend over for both?

Fuck off


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The SHAC campaign ends but funds still needed to support the SHAC Heroes.

07.01.2015 14:52

The SHAC campaign ends but funds still needed to support the SHAC Heroes.


The SHAC campaign has ended in victory however there are still individuals who are continuing vital AR work today linked to HLS and they need your help to fight that fight.

You can make either a one off anonymous donation or set up a regular payment.

We would be grateful for any donations however small. At a time when a footballer is called a "hero' for scoring a goal it is worth remembering that the animals are being saved and protected every day by real heroes.

Help us help these wonderful people, many of who have given their lives to animal protection.

Donations can be made to

Account: SHAC - Help For Heroes
Sort Code 30-90-21
Account Number 03524452

Thanks


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