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, 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 campaign
[Woolcock, 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, decentralized political and social resistance movement that engages in and promotes non-violent direct action in protest against incidents of animal cruelty. It originated in th ...
, 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,
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 laboratory. HLS tests medical and non-medical substances on around 75,000 ...
, and other campaigns that have jointly altered the nature of the
animal rights movement 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
Hereford.
[ 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 targeted ...
, 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.]
See also
*Animal Liberation Front
The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is an international, leaderless, decentralized political and social resistance movement that engages in and promotes non-violent direct action in protest against incidents of animal cruelty. It originated in th ...
* Camp Beagle
* Save the Hillgrove Cats
*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 laboratory. HLS tests medical and non-medical substances on around 75,000 ...
* Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs
*Shamrock Farm
Shamrock Farm was the United Kingdom's only non-human primate importation and quarantine centre, located in Small Dole, near Henfield in West Sussex. The centre, owned by Bausch and Lomb and run by Charles River Laboratories, Inc. for Shamrock ...
* Leaderless resistance
Notes
{{reflist
Animal Liberation Front
Animal rights protests
Animal testing in the United Kingdom
Dog breeding
Dogs in the United Kingdom
Protests in England