The Consort beagles campaign was founded in 1996 by British animal rights activists

Greg Avery Greg Avery is a British animal rights activist. His latest involvement is with Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), an international campaign to force the closure of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), an animal testing company based in the UK a ...

and Heather James, with a view to closing Consort Kennels in

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

, a commercial breeder of beagles for

animal testing Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and ''in vivo'' testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments that seek to control the variables that affect the behavior or biological system under study. This ...

laboratories.

Background

The company closed in September 1997 after a ten-month campaignWoolcock, Nicola
Extremists seek fresh targets close to home
''The Times'', August 25, 2005. consisting of daily protests and raids carried out by the

Animal Liberation Front The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is an international, Leaderless resistance, leaderless, decentralized political and social resistance movement that engages in and promotes non-violent direct action in protest against incidents of animal cruelt ...

, including the removal in May 1997 of 26 beagles. Following the company's closure, the same group of activists set up

Save the Hill Grove Cats Save the Hill Grove Cats was a British animal rights campaign set up in 1997 with the aim of closing Hill Grove Farm near Witney in Oxfordshire. The farm, owned by Christopher Brown, was the last commercial breeder of cats for laboratories in the ...

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) was an international animal rights campaign to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), Europe's largest contract Animal testing, animal-testing laboratory. HLS tests medical and non-medical substances on ...

, and other campaigns that have jointly altered the nature of the

animal rights movement The animal rights (AR) movement, sometimes called the animal liberation, animal personhood, or animal advocacy movement, is a social movement that seeks an end to the rigid moral and legal distinction drawn between human and non-human animals, ...

in the UK.

Protest

The campaign came to public attention on April 24, 1997 on World Day for Laboratory Animals, when an estimated five hundred protesters turned up for a national demonstration at the kennels located in a field off the A49, between

Ross-on-Wye Ross-on-Wye (Welsh: ''Rhosan ar Wy'') is a market town in England, near the border with Wales. It had a population of 10,582 according to the 2011 census, estimated at 11,309 in 2019. It lies in south-eastern Herefordshire, on the River Wye and ...

and

. Mann, Keith. ''From Dusk 'til Dawn: An insider's view of the growth of the Animal Liberation Movement''. Puppy Pincher Press, 2007, pp. 519. Activists breached the fence causing it to come down, and a handful of protesters crossed the security area and climbed over the compound wall. The area was then secured by three hundred police officers in riot gear,Martin Balluch – The Interview
''Abolitionist Online''. until two masked men appeared on the single storey building holding a beagle they had removed from the kennels. Mann, Keith. ''From Dusk 'til Dawn: An insider's view of the growth of the Animal Liberation Movement''. Puppy Pincher Press, 2007, pp. 520. Following an hour of

rioting A riot is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The property targete ...

, the pregnant beagle was lowered to a group of around forty people. The dog was later returned to the kennels by police. Mann, Keith. ''From Dusk 'til Dawn: An insider's view of the growth of the Animal Liberation Movement''. Puppy Pincher Press, 2007, pp. 521–522.

Notes

{{reflist Animal Liberation Front Animal rights protests Animal testing in the United Kingdom Dog breeding Dogs in the United Kingdom Protests in England

Background

Protest

See also

Notes