Student email provokes SPEAK
Two police cars watched the college gates throughout Sunday night
An Oxford college has been forced to clamp down on security after a student sent an email to the animal rights group SPEAK threatening to kill a cat for every post made on its website. The Thames Valley Police (TVP) were called to the college in question by worried college authorities last Sunday evening. Officers arrived within half an hour, and two police cars watched the college entrances for much of the night, with other unmarked cars also in the area.
The university marshal was called in to advise on the incident. Both the Thames Valley Police and the university have asked The Oxford Student not to name either the college or the student involved to avoid further jeopardising the welfare of his fellow students. However, this paper understands that although the police cars had left by early the following morning, security at the college is still high.
SPEAK has reported the incident to Thames Valley Police (TVP), and the student is currently under investigation for a photograph he included with the email, showing a cat which he claimed to have tortured. The Thames Valley Police confirmed that a 20-year-old man, arrested on suspicion of sending malicious communication, has been released on bail, pending further enquiries, until 21 March.
A spokesperson for the TVP said, “The e-mail is likely to have caused a great deal of distress to people visiting the website and that is something we take very seriously. Therefore we are investigating the incident thoroughly.
The offending email was sent in the early hours of February 24th, and stated, ‘To prove that I am not bluffing, I hit a stray cat on the head with a baseball bat, but it wasn’t quite dead, so I put it in an old cage I use for torturing hamsters and threw it around a bit. ‘Then I took the attatched picture on my mobile phone. I was thinking of posting the cats I’ve killed to you, but what address shall I post them to? Please let me know.
The email was reproduced in full on SPEAK’s website, alongside information about its source and a statement from the group which read, ‘Let no one be in any doubt: the sentiment expressed by the person who wrote this is common place amongst those that both support and kill animals in a fraudulent scientific practice.
‘While many people who purport to be in favour of the barbaric practice of animal ‘research’ are simply buying into the lies they are being spoon fed rather than looking at the facts and thinking for themselves, there are many others who fall into an altogether different category. ‘The email might be a sick joke, or it might not be. Regardless, it clearly illustrates the type of individuals that support vivisection.
The JCR committee of the college in question had been due to meet on the evening the email appeared on the site, and at their meeting they made the decision to take the matter to the head of the college. College authorities decided that the student should be asked to spend some time away from the college to avoid endangering the welfare of other students. He left that evening, and had not returned at the time of going to press.
If the student does not face criminal charges he is still likely to come under investigation from the university authorities. A spokesperson for the university said, “The student concerned may have intended it as a ‘joke’, but this does not excuse such behaviour, which we find highly irresponsible. “We take such actions by our members extremely seriously and the relevant university authorities are currently investigating the matter.
“However, it would not be appropriate for us to comment further at this time or to disclose the identity of the student concerned.”
2nd Mar 2006