Join The Electronic Civil Disobedience Against Puppy Killing Scum

STOP HUNTINGDON ANIMAL CRUELTY

The campaign to shut down Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) is fast becoming one of the most significant in the history of the animal rights movement. The speed, methodology, and determination with which one of the world's biggest animal testing laboratories is being brought to its knees, entirely by the efforts of volunteer grassroots activists, denotes the endless possibilities of what what a small community of passionate campaigners can do. The closure of HLS by an animal rights campaign will not only mean saving the 180,000 animals that die annually at HLS, but will also signify another nail in the coffin of the vivisection industry.

HLS

Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) is one of the world's largest product testing labs. HLS test agrochemicals (such as pesticides, weed-killers, herbicides, fungicides, etc.), household products (detergent, oven cleaner, sugar substitutes, etc.), some pharmaceutical products (notables include diet pills, Viagra, and Baycol - an anti-cholesterol drug that went on to kill 180 people), and highly controversial Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's). Approximately 500 animals die every day in these tests. HLS uses every animal from rats and mice, to dogs, cats and rabbits, to primates and farm animals.

HLS is a CRO, or Contract Research Organization. As such, it does not conduct research and development, meaning it does not create its own products and does not search for cures for diseases. Rather, HLS is contracted by other companies to conduct toxicity testing for *their* products. These tests essentially consist of forcing a product into an animal's stomach, lungs, or onto his/her skin for weeks or months on end, then killing the animal and dissecting him/her.

In addition to HLS's daily job described above, the lab has been exposed in 5 undercover investigations since 1989, revealing horrendous animal cruelty and sloppy, fraudulent sciences. HLS workers were filmed punching four-month-old beagle puppies in the face, dissecting a live monkey, and falsifying their own research reports.

HLS operates two facilities in England and one in East Millstone, NJ. At any one time there are 70,000 animals imprisoned within these 3 facilities.

SHAC

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) is an international campaign to close Huntingdon Life Sciences. It began in England in 1999 and is now active in 16 different countries.

SHAC will not stop when cages are bigger, when animals receive more painkillers, or are imprisoned in their cages for less hours a day. SHAC is an uncompromising and unapologitic campaign to *abolish* the hell that is HLS.

SHAC USA

Recently incorporated, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty USA reports on efforts around the U.S. to close HLS. Grassroots activists in nearly every major U.S. city organize outreach events, speaking events, publicity stunts, and protests to close HLS. SHACAmerica.net is your one stop site for all the latest news around the country, current campaign targets, and background info on the campaign to close HLS and animal rights. SHAC USA also publishes a regular newsletter, sends out an eNewsletter and keeps everyone informed of the campaign nationwide via our email list.

To receive our newsletter, email us your mailing address. shacusa [at] envirolink.org

To subscribe to our eNewsletter, delivered to your email inbox every 3 weeks, click here. http://www.mailermailer.com/x?oid=13446z

Join our email list send a blank email with "subscribe" in the title to closehls [at] lists.riseup.net

STRATEGY

The hallmark of the SHAC campaign is its strategy. Examining what allows a company to operate, and then attacking those pillars of corporate support, SHAC activists have been able to literally pull HLS's legs out from underneath it.

Rather than protesting the lab itself, the SHAC campaign targets secondary targets - those companies that HLS needs so desperately to operate, but that don't need HLS or the pressure that comes with doing business with them.

This strategy has been met with unprecedented success as activists have driven away some of the world's largest financial companies. Among them are investors (Citibank, Merrill Lynch, HSBC, etc.), stockbrokers (Charles Scwhab, Etrade, etc.), market makers (all 8 U.S. market makers within 8 weeks), customers (British Biotech, Tate & Lyle, etc.), and suppliers (janitorial service, crematorium, food service provider, etc.).

TACTICS

Like every successfull movement in history, the SHAC campaign uses every tool in the toolbox, from protests, to letter writing, to phone blockades, publicity stunts, and direct action. Anti-HLS activists have proven some of the most creative in the movement, keeping the campaign dynamic and our adversaries always wondering what's next.

In addition to the efforts of above ground activists, the Animal Liberation Front and other anonymous individuals have contributed to the campaign in the form of economic sabotage and live liberations from HLS and the lab's breeders. Like the celebrators of the Boston Tea Party and the Underground Railroad before them, these brave individuals put their own freedom on the line to deliver substantial blows to HLS and the companies that keep them up and running. (**Note: SHAC will vocally support any action that contributes to animal liberation as long as no human or animal is harmed.)

MAKING HISTORY

In 4 short years SHAC has brought one of the world's largest animal testing labs to its knees - driving it $85 million into debt, getting it kicked off the New York and London Stock Exchanges, and making HLS a horrifying household name around the world. It is no wonder the Financial Times had this to say about this fast and furious effort:

“A tiny group of activists is succeeding where Karl Marx, the Baader- Meinhof gang and the Red Brigades failed.”

JOIN SHAC AND MAKE HISTORY!!