Police arrest 30 extremists
Over 30 animal rights hardliners were arrested in a series of dawn raids across the UK and Europe on Tuesday. The operation, the largest ever conducted against animal rights extremists, involved over 700 police officers. The arrest comes in the wake of a series of attacks on Oxford property carried out by animal rights extremists in the past year. Police have confirmed that an Oxford man was among the arrested.
A police spokeswoman said, “Police officers are executing warrants to enter and search premises at 30 addresses throughout the UK and Europe. “The warrants have been obtained as part of an ongoing investigation into criminal activity associated with animal rights extremism.” Animal rights groups have been protesting in Oxford for three years against the biomedical facility being built on South Parks Road, which, they allege, will engage in animal testing.
Last year militant animal rights activists calling themselves the ‘Animal Liberation Front’ issued a statement saying, “We must target professors, teachers, heads, students, investors, partners, supporters and anyone that dares to deal in any part of the University in any way."
Ian Simpson, a spokesman for Pro Test, an Oxford based group set up to support the Oxford animal lab, told The Oxford Student, “We welcome these arrests as evidence that the war against animal rights extremism is being won, and that researches can go about their lifesaving work in a climate free from fear and intimidation”. Last term the Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for planting firebombs in an annexe of Templeton College.
A statement released on ‘BiteBack’, a militant animal rights website, claimed the attack was, “part of an ongoing fight against Oxford University and its continued reign of terror over the unseen victims inside its animal labs."
3rd May 2007