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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: June 2007

32 British activists held after May 1 raids

 

LONDON--More than 700 police officers on May 1, 2007 raided 29 addresses in 12 British counties, two addresses in The Netherlands, and one in Belgium, detaining 15 men and 17 women--all in Britain--on suspicion of involvement in arsons and vandalism committed in the name of animal rights.

The dawn raids reportedly seized £100,000 in cash, numerous mobile telephones, computer equipment, and documents.

The most prominent address raided was the 25-year-old Freshfields Animal Rescue Centre in Merseyside. Freshfields manager Dave Callender, 47, in March 1996 was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison for conspiring to commit arson.

"A jury at Birmingham crown court heard he had enough material to make more than 100 incendiary devices," wrote Guardian crime correspondent Sandra Laville. "The prosecution alleged that he was planning a 'campaign directed at targets which included cattle farms, slaughterhouses, meat traders, egg production farms, and also societies connected with hunting and other field sports.'

"Callender was also a leader of demonstrations against fox hunting, hare coursing, and the Grand National" horse race," recalled Laville.

But Callender was not arrested on May 1.

The British animal rights magazine Arkangel alleged that "50-60 police arrived at 5.30 a.m., smashing their way through the front doors of the centre and in the process releasing four dogs," only two of whom were promptly recaptured.

Merseyside Police denied that the raid caused any harm.

Ten of the 32 detainees were charged within days with conspiracy to blackmail, identified by the Crown Prosecutions Service as Daniel Amos, 20; Greg Avery, 39; Natasha Dallamaigne Avery, 38; Stephen Barclay, 50; Linus Harrison, 21; Gavin Medd-Hall, 44; Heather Nicholson, 40; Grace Quantock, 19; Gerrah Selby, 19; and Daniel Wadham, 20.

Accused of blackmail were Dianne Jamieson, 59, and Suzanne Jaggers, 35.

Nicholson, also known as Heather James, and Greg Avery, her former husband, were cofounders of the militant protest group Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty. Natasha Avery is Greg Avery's current spouse.

Five other SHAC leaders--one in Britain, four in the U.S.--in September 2006 drew prison terms of from three to seven years for vandalizing Huntingdon Life Sciences property and uttering threats against staff.

The May 1 police raids came two weeks after Jasper Copping of the Sunday Telegraph noted that, "Animal rights extremists are targeting farmers at a rate of one incident every nine days, raising fears that they are widening their scope. The number of incidents could be higher, it is thought, as not all are reported to police."

Copping noted that farmers appeared to have become the chief targets of vandalism and sabotage "after police success in curbing attacks on animal research companies."

The most recent related conviction came on April 12, 2007, when Wayne Bunch, 27, pleaded guilty to two counts of blackmail for writing threatening letters in 2003 to two employees of Darley Oaks Farm in Newchurch, Staffordshire, "in which he warned them to leave their jobs and threatened to set fire to their homes," reported Nicola Woolcock of The Times of London.

Bunch was arrested, according to Woolcock, as result of a routine DNA sample matching up, after he was taken into custody following an altercation outside a nightclub in November 2005.