The Consort beagles campaign was founded in 1996 by British animal rights activists
Greg Avery
Greg Avery is a British animal rights activist and former criminal. He has been involved with Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), an international campaign to force the closure of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), an animal testing company b ...
and
Heather James, with a view to closing Consort Kennels in
Hereford
Hereford ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of the ceremonial county of Herefordshire, England. It is on the banks of the River Wye and lies east of the border with Wales, north-west of Gloucester and south-west of Worcester. With ...
, 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 animals, as model organisms, in experiments that seek answers to scientific and medical questions. This approach can be contrasted ...
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 a Far-left politics, far-left international, Leaderless resistance, leaderless, decentralized movement that emerged in Britain in the 1970s, evolving from the Bands of Mercy. It operates without a formal lead ...
, 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 tested medical and non-medical substances on around 75,00 ...
, and other campaigns that have jointly altered the nature of the
animal rights movement
The animal rights movement, sometimes called the animal liberation, animal personhood, or animal advocacy movement, is a social movement that advocates 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 24 April 1997, 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 road between
Ross-on-Wye
Ross-on-Wye is a market town and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, near the border with Wales. It had a population estimated at 10,978 in 2021. It lies in the south-east of the county, on the River Wye and on the northern edge of the Fore ...
and
Hereford
Hereford ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of the ceremonial county of Herefordshire, England. It is on the banks of the River Wye and lies east of the border with Wales, north-west of Gloucester and south-west of Worcester. With ...
.
[ 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,
[, ''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 or mob violence 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 p ...
, 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 a Far-left politics, far-left international, Leaderless resistance, leaderless, decentralized movement that emerged in Britain in the 1970s, evolving from the Bands of Mercy. It operates without a formal lead ...
*
Camp Beagle
Camp Beagle is an ongoing protest camp set up in June 2021 by animal rights activists outside of MBR Acres, a breeding facility for beagles used in laboratory research, in Wyton, Cambridgeshire. As of May 2024, It is the longest-lasting protest ...
*
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 tested medical and non-medical substances on around 75,00 ...
*
Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs
Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs (SNGP) was a six-year campaign by British animal rights activists to close a farm in Newchurch, Staffordshire that bred guinea pigs for animal research. The owners, three brothers trading as David Hall and Partne ...
*
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
Leaderless resistance, or phantom cell structure, is a social resistance strategy in which small, independent groups ( covert cells), or individuals (a solo cell is called a " lone wolf"), challenge an established institution such as a law, econ ...
Notes
{{reflist
Animal Liberation Front
Animal rights protests
Animal testing in the United Kingdom
Dog breeding
Dogs in the United Kingdom
Protests in England