Heather Nicholson
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Heather Nicholson is a British
animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have Moral patienthood, moral worth independent of their Utilitarianism, utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as ...
activist.Peachey, Paul (23 August 2014)
"Animal rights group ends 15-year campaign against experiments at Huntingdon"
''The Independent''.
Nicholson set up Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) to close Huntingdon Life Sciences, a contract animal-testing company. That campaign was unsuccessful and closed in 2014. In 2009 Nicholson was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment for conspiracy to
blackmail Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat. As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a thr ...
in connection with the SHAC campaign. Six other senior SHAC activists, including Avery and Dellemagne, were jailed for the same offences. All were alleged by police to be key figures within 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 ...
.Laville, Sandra (24 December 2008)
"Animal rights extremists still targeting lab"
''The Guardian''.


Activism


Consort, Hill Grove

Nicholson became involved in 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, ...
when she was 26, after attending a demonstration at Swansea airport to protest against live animal exports.Turner, Robin (22 January 2009)
"Welsh animal rights activist jailed for 11 years"
''Western Mail''.
During a similar demonstration at Coventry airport, she met her husband, Greg Avery, also an animal rights activist. She joined Avery to found Consort beagles, a campaign against Consort, a company in Ross-on-Wye that bred beagles for laboratories, which closed 10 months later. Nicholson and Avery co-founded a subsequent campaign, Save the Hill Grove Cats, which saw the closure two years later of Hill Grove Farm near Oxford, which bred laboratory cats.Yeoman, Fran (23 December 2008)
"Businessman received bomb threats and paedophile claims from animal rights extremists"
''The Times''.


SHAC

Nicholson and Avery set up
SHAC 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 tested medical and non-medical substances o ...
in 1999, along with Natasha Dellemagne, to close Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). The company was saved when the British government provided it with banking facilities, after the UK's major banks severed ties with it as a result of the campaign. HLS is Europe's largest contract animal-testing company, testing everything from pesticides to drugs, on behalf of commercial clients, on around 75,000 animals a year, including rats, rabbits, pigs, dogs, and primates. HLS was the subject of an undercover investigation by the
British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection Cruelty Free International is a British animal rights and advocacy group that campaigns for the abolition of all animal testing. It organises certification of cruelty-free products which are marked with the symbol of a leaping bunny. It was ...
in 1989, which alleged that workers routinely mishandled the animals. Nicholson, Avery, and Dellemagne set up SHAC in November 1999, after
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA; ) is an American animal rights nonprofit organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. Founded in March 1980 by Newkirk and animal rights ...
obtained undercover footage showed HLS staff punching and shaking beagles in the company's laboratory in Cambridge, England.Channel 4 (1997). "It's a Dog's Life", ''Countryside Undercover'', Channel Four Television (UK). The SHAC campaign targeted anyone who worked for or did business with HLS. This could entail protesters standing outside homes, blowing whistles and letting off fireworks throughout the night, spraying graffiti on property, breaking windows, spreading rumours to neighbours that the target was a paedophile, and sending hoax bombs and obscene mail. Threats of violence were signed on behalf of the Animal Liberation Front or Animal Rights Militia.Yeoman, Fran (7 October 2008)
"Animal rights activists organised 'six-year terror campaign'"
''The Times'', 7 October 2008.
The police and courts regarded the SHAC campaign as an example of "urban terrorism". Nicholson described it as "a straightforward battle between good and evil, mercy and money, compassion and cruelty." Nicholson and Avery divorced in or around 2002, but continued to live and work together. In 2002 Avery married Natasha Dellemagne and the three of them lived for a time together in a rent-free cottage in Woking, Surrey. The cottage was owned by Virginia Jane Steele, also known as Alexander, a wealthy supporter of the animal rights movement.


Injunctions, convictions

Nicholson said she had received 50 injunctions in connection with her activism. In 2005 she was given a five-year Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) instructing her to stay away from animal research laboratories or anyone associated with HLS. In 2006 she was jailed for affray for assaulting a family, including a 75-year-old woman, whose car displayed a sticker supporting
fox hunting Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase and, if caught, the killing of a fox, normally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds. A group of unarmed followers, led by a "master of foxhounds" (or "master of hounds" ...
. In January 2009, after pleading not guilty at Winchester Crown Court, Nicholson was jailed for 11 years for conspiracy to blackmail during the SHAC campaign. Police obtained evidence to secure the conviction by bugging a 2007 meeting in a cottage in Moorcote, near Hook, Hampshire, attended by Nicholson and six other SHAC activists, as well as hired cars they had used.Turner, Robin (25 January 2009)
Jailed animal activist speaks from behind bars
''Wales on Sunday''.
The bugging was part of Operation Achilles, a police operation against animal rights activists that led to 32 arrests in May 2007, carried out by 700 officers in England, Amsterdam and Belgium.Avers, Marco (19 November 2007)
"Resisting the Animal Avengers"
''Spiegel Online International'', 2.
Nicholson gave herself up to police when she heard about the raids; she was arrested and denied bail. The court heard that Nicholson was among seven people who had made false paedophile accusations, caused criminal damage and used bomb hoaxes to intimidate companies associated with HLS. Two hundred and seventy companies severed ties to HLS as a result of the campaign. Avery and Dellemagne were jailed for nine years, and four other activists received sentences of between four and eight years. Nicholson was also served with an ASBO, restricting future contact with companies targeted in the campaign.Bowcott, Owen (21 January 2009)
"Court jails Huntingdon animal test lab blackmailers"
''The Guardian''.


See also

*
List of animal rights advocates Advocates of animal rights believe that many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as in avoiding suffering—should be afforded ...


Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholson, Heather 1967 births Living people 20th-century British criminals Animal Liberation Front People educated at Olchfa School People from Swansea Prisoners and detainees of England and Wales British animal rights activists British prisoners and detainees British women activists