Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs
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Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs was a campaign by British animal rights activists to close a farm in Newchurch, Staffordshire, England, that bred guinea pigs for vivisection and animal testing.
The farm closed in 2006 as a result of the six-year campaign.
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[edit] Background
Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs (SNGP) was launched in 1999 after a raid by the Animal Liberation Front on David and Christopher Hall’s Darley Oaks Farm, during which several hundred animals were stolen. Video footage, activists claim, showed dirty, crowded conditions inside the breeding sheds, with many unhealthy and dying guinea pigs being eaten alive by others. [1] The owners denied this. Records showing that the sheds were cleaned out once a week, that the dead and dying were removed every day and that the animals were culled by cervical dislocation were also exposed. [citation needed]
The guinea pigs were sold to laboratories for animal testing. Animal rights activists set up SNGP with the intention of halting the guinea pig breeding at Darley Oaks.
[edit] The campaign
Regular demonstrations took place on the roadside near the farm. The campaign published the contact details of anyone connected to the farm, from the owners and their family to the businesses that traded with them, and the local public houses that the Hall family frequented. Campaigners were urged to contact those associated with the farm and politely ask them to halt their association. This tactic led to those named receiving thousands of phone-calls and letters, as well as unsolicited junk-mail, false allegations of paedophilia, hoax bombs and death threats (including threats against children) [2]. Fireworks were let off by the house in the middle of the night, and graffiti was sprayed on their property and around the village. Police logged over 450 separate criminal acts over a two year period.
In 2004, the remains of Christopher Hall's mother-in-law, Gladys Hammond, were taken from her grave.
Several animal liberation groups, including SPEAK, publicly condemned the desecration, but the Hall family and media organisations received correspondence from the Animal Rights Militia claiming responsibility. The letters also threatened the lives of family members should the farm continue breeding guinea pigs [3]
In late 2005, the Hall family announced the farm would close and expressed hope "the decision would prompt the return of [Hammond's] body" [4]; the business ceased on January 20, 2006.
Four people (Kerry Whitburn of Edgbaston, John Smith of Wolverhampton, John Ablewhite of Manchester, and Josephine Mayo of Staffordshire), who were known members of the Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs campaign group, pleaded guilty at Nottingham Crown Court to charges of conspiracy to blackmail. The Crown prosecutor explained that "the prosecution could not prove the four actually physically stole the body of Gladys Hammond, but they admitted using the theft as part of their campaign." [5] On May 2, 2006 police, acting on information provided by Smith, discovered human remains at Cannock Chase, near Hednesford. These were later confirmed to be Hammond's body [6].
On May 11, 2006, Ablewhite, Whitburn, and Smith were each sentenced to 12 years in jail, with Mayo receiving a four-year term. [7]
[edit] References
- Injunction against animal rights activists could lead to five years in prison if contravened.
- Home-made bomb designer arrested.
- Petrol bomb sent to home.
- Minority of protestors agree to limit protests.
- DVLA insider, Barry Saul Dickinson aged 34, who helped protestors find farm worker addresses gets five months.
- Animal rights people lob fireworks at someones house at 2am in the morning.
- Animal rights activists spread malicious rumours that a fuel supplier is a paedophile.
- Worried cleaner leaves her farm job.
- Tony Blair is no friend of animal rights protestors.
- Protestors disrupted annual event at nearby golf club.
- Protestor jailed for a month.
- Protestors' website is closed by Staffordshire Police.
- Arson attack at farm nearly kills firefighters.
- Workers house is vandalised.
- Protestors paint the countryside red.
- Farm cleaner has bricks thrown through her windows.
- Bomb attack on houses close to farm cleaner.
- Farm worker harassed for two years.
- Protestors orchestrate mass posting of complaint letters to Staffordshire Police with false addresses.
- Men admit farm blackmail charges.
- "Four animal rights activists jailed", Press Association, May 11, 2006
