Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Police Raid Animal Rights Extremists

The news, reported in the FT, that there has been a significant raid on animal rights extremists is very welcome indeed. Too often these terrorists have been allowed to operate without proper sanction. Their tactics are utterly gruesome and deplorable. Grandmothers bodies exhumed from their graves and stolen. Cleaners or contractors with only the most tenuous links to animal testing companies abused. Aids infected needles posted to researchers. Animal testings firm's staff's children hassled at school. A legal industry prevented from doing good work testing drugs that will save lives.

Animal rights extremists have the same contempt for democratic decision making and lack of scruples as Islamist terrorists. They don't operate with the same destructive scale which makes them less threatening but that doesn't mean their violation of the rule of law isn't serious. They are both utterly wrong and pursue their objectives in a completely illegitimate matter.

There aren't that many of them so this number of arrests should manage to make a pretty serious dent in their operations. It's great to see the police finally succeeding in taking serious action against them. Things are getting better:

The latest figures from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry showed a sharp drop in attacks in 2006, with no personal assaults, 50 instances of damage to property, 20 visits to employees’ homes with civil disturbance and six abusive or threatening letters and text messages.


For too long animal rights lunatics have been allowed to hound an industry whose achievements Britain should be proud of. It is great, great news we appear to have turned the tide.

3 comments:

VegArd said...

"Doing good work testing drugs that will save lives" is a common myth about what vivisection labs actually achieve. In fact, research using animals is bad science, because even our closest relatives (the other great apes) don't have the same physiologies we do and react differently to drugs and diseases. But there's so much money in the vivisection industry, with corporations getting mega-rich off of it, that they've managed to fool the public into thinking vivisection works, that it's a necessary evil. In fact, alternatives to animal testing exist and are used by more responsible, compassionate research labs.

I'm a moderate, I don't believe in violence or threats of violence to get my point across. I confine myself to holding signs on sidewalks and writing letters in order to rattle cages, so to speak. But as in every successful social movement, I recognize that you need the yin AND the yang. That's what happened in the abolition movement, the union movement, women's suffrage, the child labor movement, the civil rights movement, and others. And I see it happening now with the animal rights movement.

There are always martyrs needed to dramatize a movement. Animal rights is no different, and we're beginning to get them now. I believe history will look back upon the 21st century and see animal rights as its most important social movement.

Matthew Sinclair said...

The doctors testing drugs on animals don't assume they are identical to us. However, given that computer modelling is still very limited they are necessary to investigating certain conditions. The alternative is testing on humans which isn't very responsible or compassionate.

The animal rights extremists aren't martyrs. They're nasty cowards who pick on the innocent because they can't win the public debate. Digging up someone's grandmother isn't a ying or a yang. It's disgusting and cowardly. Similarly picking on researcher's children.

Animal rights extremists respond to losing the debate with violence because they have no respect for democratic decision making.

Anonymous said...

Testing on animals is disgusting behaviour and should never happen because if animals are so like humans wouldn't they have feelings too? Anyone testing on animals should be disgusted with themselves. Grandparents shouldn't be dug up or children be taunted but these activists are trying to make a point. We are testing drugs and make-up on animals and this behaviour is wrong and shouldn't be practeiced on anyone or anything even gross animals like rats.