With the sun shining down a group of around 40 animal righs protestors picketed Huntingdon Life Sciences - the animal testing laboratory, north east of Cambridge. All morning the police had cordoned off fields, blocked roads, and set up heavily staffed observation points at local roundabouts.
With roads closed and A3 poster sized Public Order Act 1996 notices tied to trees and hedges everywhere demonstrators began to gather outside HLS at around midday. With a large police presence at the gates the protestors picketed and held their vigil. Other groups of protestors came and went bringing news of more peaceful actions occuring in the county, until at around 2pm it was time to move on. Their point made, despite the huge police presence, people paused to eat sandwiches before heading off to a different location.
In the 5 minutes after leaving HLS we counted over 40 police, 12 police cars and 4 police cars stationed alongside the road - just another example of overkill, a bit like that which goes on behind the closed doors of HLS every day.
In the 5 minutes after leaving HLS we counted over 40 police, 12 police cars and 4 police cars stationed alongside the road - just another example of overkill, a bit like that which goes on behind the closed doors of HLS every day.