In the month of May, a severe backlash by authorities against animal rights activists has arisen in response to on-going campaigns against Huntingdon Life Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline, Oxford University and other animal exploiters. One security analyst was widely reported to say he thought the UK was like "the Afghanistan of animal rights extremism." The government has branded more extreme activists "thugs and terrorists." Prime Minister Tony Blair, in a move many interpret as an attempt to bolster his low public ratings, got in on the action and has focused lately on law and order issues, declared that it is time to act against animal rights protesters, and touted his signing of a pro-vivisection petition. Oxford sought and received injunctions limiting demonstrations at its new research lab. GlaxoSmithKline received a court injunction protecting the identities of it shareholders. Almost a dozen activists have recently been arrested for unknown reasons while others have been given lengthy jail terms.

London's High Court granted unprecedented injunctions limiting the freedom of Oxford University protesters. The injunctions are intended to protect Oxford's still-under-construction biomedical animal research laboratory from anti-vivisection demonstrations. Activists will be permitted to protest only during certain specified times and cannot use bullhorns. Activists will not be allowed to identify former and current students, staff, and contractors from the research center and no protest activity can take place within a hundred yards of the residences of those who work with the lab. Protests are not allowed within 100 yards of colleges or universities themselves, but Oxford failed in attempting to gain a four square mile anti-protest exclusion zone. Activists from the UK group SPEAK said the injunctions would make little difference to the group's campaigning activities.

After activists mailed letters to GlaxoSmithKline shareholders that threatened to reveal their names if they did not sell their shares, Europe's biggest drug maker secured a rare High Court injunction against an unknown group of animal rights activists, preventing them from publicizing names of its shareholders. It was the first time such an injunction had been granted to a company in Britain.

Eleven animal activists had their houses raided and were arrested across Britain for unknoown reasons. Some suspect it is a fishing expedition by authorities to see what information might be found by raiding the residences of legal animal rights activists.

Four activists were jailed in early May — three for 12 years each. One of the activists was jailed over an unexploded petrol bomb found on the doorstep of one of the owners of a guinea pig breeding farm that has been targeted by activists for years. The others were jailed for blackmail in relation to the theft of a woman's body from her grave in 2004, although authorities did not establish that these activists were actually responsible for the desecration. The woman whose body was stolen was a relative of the farm's owners. The farm has been targeted by various activists in a campaign that began with an Animal Liberation Front release of 600 guinea pigs in 1999.

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UK Activists: SPEAK | SHAC | ALF History