Close Down Huntingdon Life Sciences

On World Day for Lab Animals (22nd April) around 2000 people, dressed in black from head to foot and wearing skull masks, went to Huntingdon Life Sciences vivisection labs in Cambridgeshire.

After drumming, music and emotional speeches, some people cut through the fence around the lab with bolt croppers, and around 150 people surged inside. A second fence of razor wire was crushed to the ground, and a makeshift bridge over a large ditch was constructed using an old gate.

Once inside the grounds, some people got in with the animals, while others managed to get into the labs where workers were shaken up by coming face to face with demonstrators. Two people scaled the roof of the building. Police seemed to be fairly laid-back, and when they realised what was happening they just pushed people back out of the hole they had come through, with few arrests. The crowd then blocked the A1, bringing traffic to a standstill, and also blocked the A14 roundabout.

At a BP petrol station 7 windows of a McDonalds were smashed, with staff later saying they were unable to identify who did it because of the masks. Later on, the house of two Huntingdon workers, who have said publicly that they’re proud of what they do for a living, was visited by a group of about 20 people.

More info from Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (see Contacts)