Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty

"SHAC" redirects here. For other uses, see SHAC (disambiguation).

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
FocusAnimal-rights campaign to close Huntingdon Life Sciences. Opposition to animal testing.
Location
  • UK and US
OriginsEngland

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) was an international animal rights campaign to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), Europe's largest contract animal-testing laboratory. HLS tests medical and non-medical substances on around 75,000 animals every year, from rats to primates.[1][2][3][4] It has been the subject of several major leaks or undercover investigations by activists and reporters since 1989.[5]

SHAC was started by three British animal rights activists—Greg Avery, Heather James, and Natasha Dellemagne—after video footage supposed to have been shot covertly inside HLS in 1997 by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) showed HLS staff shaking, punching, and shouting at beagles in their care.[6] The footage was broadcast by Channel 4 in the UK, the employees were dismissed and prosecuted, and HLS's licence to perform animal experiments was revoked for six months. PETA stopped its protests against the company after HLS threatened it with legal action, and SHAC took over as a leaderless resistance.[7]

The campaign used tactics ranging from non-violent protest to the alleged firebombing of houses owned by executives associated with HLS's clients and investors. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which monitors US domestic extremism, has described SHAC's modus operandi as "frankly terroristic tactics similar to those of anti-abortion extremists," and in 2005 an official with the FBI's counter-terrorism division referred to SHAC's activities in the United States as domestic terrorist threats.[3][8]

In 2009 and 2010, 13 members of SHAC, including Avery, James, and Dellemagne, were jailed for between 15 months and eleven years on charges of conspiracy to blackmail or harm HLS and its suppliers.[9][10]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference BBCJan182001 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "New bill clamps down on animal activist activity" Archived 12 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Drug Researcher, 17 November 2006.
  3. ^ a b "SPLCenter.org: From Push to Shove". 19 October 2003. Archived from the original on 19 October 2003. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  4. ^ Townsend, Mark. "Exposed: secrets of the animal organ lab", The Observer, 20 April 2003.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference investigations was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Alleyne, Richard. "Terror tactics that brought a company to its knees", The Daily Telegraph, 19 January 2001.
  7. ^ Doward, Jamie and Townsend, Mark. "Beauty and the beasts", The Observer, 1 August 2004.
  8. ^ Lewis, John E. "Statement of John Lewis", US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, 26 October 2005, accessed 17 January 2011.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Evers was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Weaver, Matthew (25 October 2010). "Animal rights activists jailed for terrorising suppliers to Huntingdon Life Sciences". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 17 September 2013.