Barry Horne Calls Off Hunger Strike

Barry Horne started taking food again at the end of September after spending six weeks on hunger strike. This followed a fax which was sent to the campaign agreeing to talks between the government and three of Barry's representatives.

The negotiations on the talks were stalled at first because the Home Office objected to criminal records of some of those nominated by Barry. However Barry's negotiators argued that their 'crimes' were related to animal rights activities and therefore were political in nature and not criminal - this was eventually accepted. The meeting took place but little progress was seen with government officials saying that ideally they would like to see an end to animal testing but in practice doing nothing. The Barry Horne Support Campaign see the meeting as a positive conclusion to the campaign as the anti-vivisection movement has been revitalized whilst the government has stated unequivocally its position on animal testing.