Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty - Protestors will go underground

Monday, 31, Jan 2005 02:16

Campaign group Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty said today the new crackdown on animal rights protestors was unjustified and would drive many protestors underground, worsening an already polarised situation.

SHAC's Greg Covan told politics.co.uk the proposed new measures "completely missed the point" as the types of action they were targeted at were already illegal. It showed Prime Minister Tony Blair was "dancing to the tune of big business". He added: "Tony Blair is the biggest recruiting sergeant ever for the animal liberation front… if you bring in draconian laws and you trample over peoples legitimate right to protest, you will drive a lot of people underground." Mr Covan warned: "They [the Government] are trying to kid [animal researchers] Huntingdon Life Sciences that this will all go away, but that is not going to happen."