Babraham Farm Inspection

On Saturday 14th June animal liberation activists conducted a peaceful and legal inspection of Babraham Farm in Cambridgeshire for breaches of animal welfare laws. Babraham Farm was the first place to conduct bizarre animal experiments in the name of genetic engineering; for example, crossing a sheep with a goat. It was made clear to the police that all activists carried a statement declaring they had no intention of causing damage or theft and were just there to look around.

Within 20 minutes a helicopter and 7 police riot vans appeared. 22 arrests were made, most for the ridiculous charge of ‘prevention of breach of the peace’. An hour later this had been changed to ‘suspicion of burglary’. All vehicles used on the action were impounded.

After 13 hours activists were released to discover that their houses had been raided in order to search for stolen documents, some having their doors smashed with sledgehammers. No evidence was found.

All 22 were bailed under an 1824 Vagrancy Act. Even the desk sergeant could not keep a straight face when reading out the charges.

This is just one incident in a chain of mass arrests at recent peaceful animal liberation demonstrations - those involved have described this as police intimidation which has no chance of succeeding because activists know that a few hours in a cell is nothing compared to what is happening to tortured animals.