The Consort beagles campaign was founded in 1996 by British animal rights activists
Greg Avery and
Heather James
Heather James (also known as Heather Moray) is a British television actress. She has appeared in a number of television series including '' Cribb'', '' The Black Tower'', '' One by One'', ''Columbo
''Columbo'' () is an American crime drama ...
, 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 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, 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, 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 and
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 ...
.
[ 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, 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
*Camp Beagle
Camp Beagle is a protest camp set up in July 2021 by animal rights activists outside of MBR Acres, a breeding facility for beagles used in laboratory research, in Wyton, Cambridgeshire. The protestors want the site to be closed down, the beagl ...
*Save the Hillgrove 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
* Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs
* Shamrock Farm
*Leaderless resistance
Leaderless resistance, or phantom cell structure, is a Rebellion, social resistance strategy in which small, independent groups (Clandestine cell system, covert cells), or individuals (a solo cell is called a "Lone wolf (terrorism), lone wolf"), ch ...
Notes
{{reflist
Animal Liberation Front
Animal rights protests
Animal testing in the United Kingdom
Dog breeding
Dogs in the United Kingdom
Protests in England