15 minute read
Inside SHAC: Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
Tom Harris became involved with SHAC in 2000, and spent the next decade as a SHAC activist in the UK.
Tom is currently writing a book about the history of SHAC and shares here some of his experiences inside the organisation.
The SHAC story seems a long time ago, but it must be fresh in your mind?
Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) formed in November 1999 following investigations by Channel 4 and PETA into Europe’s largest animal testing laboratory, Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). They revealed law-breaking and extreme violence by staff at the facility, including horrifying scenes of beagle puppies being punched in the face and live monkeys being cut open without anaesthesia. These things happen every day inside laboratories, but this time it was caught on film.
There were two elements to SHAC which made it so effective. First, we made it personal. We didn’t stand outside screaming at a faceless corporation, but headed directly for the doorsteps of decision makers who allow these terrible things to happen. Second, we pitted capitalism against itself. HLS would never close because we asked them to, so we focused our energy on the businesses they needed to survive.
With relentless office incursions, home demonstrations, roof top protests, publicity stunts, lock-ons and large mobilisations, SHAC spread to every inhabited continent on earth. HLS lost hundreds of suppliers and were forced to build their own laundry, gas pipelines, crematorium, and catering company. HLS were brought to the brink of bankruptcy on multiple occasions.
Unfortunately, there was a perfect storm brewing behind the scenes. When Tony Blair’s ‘New Labour’ came to power in 1997, a biotech billionaire named David Sainsbury gave them a £2 million donation. Blair rewarded him with a seat in the House of Lords. Despite not being an elected politician he was handed a senior government role as Minister for Science. According to Lobby Watch, this allowed Lord Sainsbury to increase his companies’ profits by 300%. It also gave him the power to fight the animal liberation movement which threatened his business interests.
Around the same time, British pharmaceutical giant Glaxo SmithKline had a flu drug refused by the NHS. They demanded Blair make the UK more welcoming to big pharma, or they would take their investment elsewhere. This would have wiped between 2-5% off GDP, and Blair feared a recession. He set up several steering groups to bring together politicians and pharmaceutical bosses. These groups made it easier to get animal testing licences, lowered the industry’s taxes, and compelled the NHS to pay more for drugs. Lord Sainsbury and the pharmaceutical industry also used these meetings to spearhead plans to end the British anti-vivisection movement.
When SHAC caused HLS to lose their banking facilities, Lord Sainsbury set them up the only private bank account ever to exist with the Bank of England. When HLS lost their insurance, Lord Sainsbury had them insured by the British government. When their auditors resigned, HLS were the only company in the UK who didn’t need to submit accounts.
You were ‘involved’ as they say...
I became involved in SHAC in 2000, when I was 17. I was drawn to the uncompromising determination of the campaign. No one ever said ‘If we win…’ we were going to win, then we were going after the next laboratory, and the next, until the whole industry was gone.
I grew up in a small town, but the movement encouraged a spirit of autonomy. My brother and I put up stickers and posters, and began disrupting local HLS suppliers. We carried out protests, outreach, and actions in support of SHAC off our own backs, and with our local(ish) group. I moved to be closer to the action, and became more and more involved in the campaign; running into offices, chaining myself to concrete barrels and busses, scaling rooftops, and disrupting conferences. I campaigned full time with SHAC for several years.
It was an exciting and hopeful time; we had the end of animal testing in our sights and we were not going to blink.
An old SHAC flyer during the height of campaigning
And you paid quite a price – how did that come about?
The attack on SHAC was part of a wider strategy by governments in Europe, North America and Asia to end the anti-vivisection movement. In the UK it started with a data analyst named Adrian Radford. Radford was employed by a spy company to monitor SHAC’s online presence, but he decided he would make more money as a police informant. Radford quit his job and infiltrated SHAC.
He organised a string of actions, such as invading Heathrow airport and the Japanese Embassy. He embedded himself into the SHAC office and the lives of several campaigners. Failing to find evidence against SHAC, Radford formed an Animal Liberation Front cell, which he claims the police directed. In a single night he damaged 14 cars belonging to people connected to animal testing.
Feigning a terminal illness, Adrian left SHAC and a few months later, on May 1st 2007, over 700 police officers in the UK and Europe smashed into 30 houses and violently arrested the occupants. These were the people Radford had deemed closest to SHAC’s founders, and my partner and I were two of them.
At this point Nicci and I were actually focused on our own organisation SARC. We had closed a puppy farm and two intensive chicken farms. We had driven fur and foie gras out of several towns along the south coast, exposed cosmetic Botox experiments, and were running a campaign against the Royal Navy‘s deep diving tests on goats. We also helped organise SHAC protests locally, and that had drawn Adrian Radford’s attention.
We’d had little contact with Radford, so we were not charged. Ten people were, and three of my close friends were remanded directly to prison, accused of founding a peaceful protest campaign.
The assault on anti-vivisection activism had a huge impact. Many long-time activists took a backseat or disappeared. Lawyers and activists advised us to do the same, but how could we? HLS were on the brink of closure, and so many people had sacrificed so much. Refusing to let SHAC die, a group of us got together to keep it going. We took precautions, such as organising all of our protests with the police, and our website and newsletters were reviewed by a barrister. We continued to use a ‘parameters of protest’ document which SHAC had agreed with the police, advising campaigners how to remain within the law.
It was not enough. The continued success of SHAC ensured Lord Sainsbury and New Labour were not going to let us continue. As eight of our friends were put on trial, we were arrested again and charged. A new trial, dubbed ‘trial 2’ was set up. As a result of the two trials, thirteen activists were convicted and sentenced to prison for a tenuous, and often unspecified involvement in ‘conspiring to blackmail’ HLS, or ‘interfering with the contractual relations’ of HLS. For publishing a newsletter containing the addresses of company headquarters, and calling for or attending peaceful protests, people received multiple years behind bars. For the next seven years, everyone who attempted to take over running SHAC after us was arrested, with several more sent to prison.
An old flyer from the height of the SHAC campaign
How did you manage looking back with the severity of the punishment?
I was on bail for three and a half years before sentencing, including a year on curfew with an electronic tag, so the prison sentence came as something of a relief. Finally I had an end date to focus on.
I often describe prison as ’boring’, but that’s not really true. I’ve never understood the concept of boredom. If you run out of things to do for yourself, then there’s always something you can do for someone else. I suppose a more accurate description would be that I constantly wished I was somewhere else. An inevitability if you have things and people you love in your life. I devoted myself to gardening, pursued my art, began a degree in French, wrote a novel, and set up a bunch of side hustles. I even got to see a peregrine falcon nest fledge.
Our convictions and sentencing were disgusting, and I despise the fact my friends and I were sent to prison based on evidence we believe was planted by Radford. But there is no healthy way to dwell on that. We are continuing to pursue appeals, and many of us are named victims in the miscarriage of justice section of the government’s Undercover Policing Inquiry. Hopefully one day we will be vindicated.
What’s been your focus these last few years?
I was released from prison in October 2012, but was subject to strict licence conditions for two and a half years. I found this period harder than prison itself, as I could be dragged back there at any moment if the police made a false allegation against me, which they had already done to others including my partner. I couldn’t use the internet, I was blocked from getting jobs, I wasn’t allowed contact with the animal liberation movement or my old friends, and for the first seven months I was forced to live in a bail hostel full of sex offenders. They even tried to stop me talking to my partner (now wife) until we threatened legal action. On top of that, I had an ASBO which prevented my involvement in activism until 2017.
After seven years of forced isolation, I struggled to find my place in the modern liberation movement. Social media existed before my incarceration, but it was in its infancy. It took me a while to realise that the ‘activism’ I saw online after my release wasn’t a true reflection of our movement. It really disturbed me to see ‘activists’ aggressively attacking new vegans for consuming the wrong brands or eating palm oil. The movement I had left nurtured, educated, and supported new activists, but social media is a cess pit of negativity. The keyboard crusaders seem to have unlimited time and energy when it comes to deterring new activists, with very little left to take real-world action for positive change.
To find my place again, I returned to where I started. For anyone drowning in the toxic goop of online activism, I urge you join your local animal rights or hunt sab group. Helping my local group has helped to start piecing myself back together; my people still exist, and they are as passionate, dedicated and determined as ever.
Away from the internet, the new animal liberation movement is in many ways a positive evolution. Several new groups draw upon the energy of the Liberation Leagues of the 1980s, weaving direct action into their ethos. Behind them, the grassroots liberation movement continues to beat; hunt sabs are still out in our fields saving wildlife, the badger cull continues to be confronted, and even the liberation of animals from laboratory suppliers has resumed.
The golden days aren’t in the past, they are now if we choose them to be.
There’s a book in the pipeline?
I had enough of seeing the history of SHAC misreported – based on the lies which sent us to prison – or forgotten altogether. I don’t think anybody knows the extent of the government conspiracy against us, nor the full history of the campaign from 1999 to 2014. There are so many lessons to be learnt, and stories to be told, so it felt important to record it accurately and completely.
Writing this book has turned into a far larger project than I expected, with far more twists, turns, and surprises than even I anticipated. It has entirely consumed the last 18 months of my life. I am still deciding whether to get a publisher or self-publish, but either way I hope it will be available early in 2022. My wish is that it inspires activists of all generations to take some form of action to end animal testing. On a personal level, it has opened my eyes to the extent of the conspiracy against us, connected me with old friends and many new ones, and has been an incredibly cathartic experience.
Who plays Tom in the movie adaptation?
I’m in talks with Brad Pitt.
There has been a resurgence of interest recently in the antivivisection movement with Camp Beagle.
How does that tie in with the SHAC story?
For the first time in a long time I feel vivisection may end in my lifetime.
Camp Beagle is a permanent protest camp outside of MBR Acres, where 2000 dogs a year are bred for vivisection. As I have returned to where I started, Camp Beagle has seen the grass roots liberation movement do the same. Before SHAC, our focus was on vivisection breeders, and it was extremely effective. We saw the closure of Hillgrove cat farm, Consort beagles, Newchurch guinea pigs, Shamrock monkeys, Regal rabbits, and many others. I hope we will soon be adding MBR to that list.
I have a personal connection with MBR Acres. Nineteen years ago, I was arrested inside that facility (although it went by a different name then). I spent two hours with the dogs. The site was surrounded by police, as a helicopter hovered overhead, and I had no means to liberate the animals. As tears poured down
my face, I made a promise to one of those dogs that I would never give up until the industry was dust. That promise drove me to never abandon SHAC until I was literally dragged to prison, and finally, thanks to Camp Beagle I feel I may yet be able to keep it.
Do you see progress in the struggle?
Between the end of SHAC in 2014, and Camp Beagle in 2021, the grassroots anti-vivisection movement all but died. Nonetheless, there has been some progress, resulting in a marginal decrease in the numbers of animals tortured and killed. My goal however is abolition, and millions of non-human animals continue to suffer in ways which exceed the most depraved horror movies.
We need a variety of tactics, from protest to politics. SHAC was described by the media as the ‘lunatic fringe’ of society. Without wider support, our only option was to force vivisection out of existence. With the advent of vegan capitalism (love it or loathe it) public opinion on non-human animal issues are changing rapidly. With the right exposé, and a smart strategy, we can build a mass movement and end vivisection.
In the current climate, we are more likely to end vivisection through legislation than force. To achieve this, we need to prove the scientific, ethical, and economic arguments against vivisection. This is where much of my attention now lies, but my way is not the only way. As long as people aren’t causing harm, we need everyone to take whatever action they think is best. The important thing is we all do something.
What lessons can the modern-day movement take from a decade or two ago?
It is vital to learn from the past, but we should not dwell there. The world changes: what once worked may fail now, and vice versa. It is worth noting that prominent SHAC campaigners have gone on to have leading roles in an array of organisations, including Stop the Cull, the Save Movement, Essere Animali, SPA Canada, Freedom for
Animals, the Beagle Freedom Project, Djurrättsalliansen, and many more. The lessons those activists learnt continue to shape our movement.
A strong example of learning from SHAC was the Green Hill campaign in Italy. Like MBR, Green Hill were owned by Marshall BioResources and bred dogs for vivisection. Instead of replicating SHAC’s relentless pressure, the Green Hill campaign focused on building a mass movement. One of their protests attracted over 50,000 people. With such overwhelming support, hundreds of people stormed the fences and rescued as many dogs as they could carry, with the police watching on. Amid the ensuing legal proceedings, judges visited Green Hill and immediately closed it for animal cruelty. Thousands of dogs were rehomed with activists, and Italy banned breeding dogs for vivisection.
We need to learn to support each other. Whatever strategies and actions we commit to, none of us knows what will work until it works. We should support people to take the actions that they think are best, regardless of our own opinions. If others don’t want to join you, that’s fine. Find someone else or do it alone.
I cannot over-stress the power of an individual. Some of the most effective protests I have carried out were just me or a handful of friends. You don’t need to join a huge protest or even find people to be active with; there is so much you can do on your own and the animals need you to do it.
The book I have written on SHAC is deliberately a history, rather than a critique. I hope that everyone who reads it will draw their own conclusion on what worked and what didn’t, and what can be translated to their own activism. My intention is for a hundred different activists to take a hundred ideas from the past and pursue them in a hundred different ways. Most of all, I hope everyone who reads it takes action, in whatever way they feel is best.
What’s your main priorities for the future?
I continue to campaign against all animal abuse, but vivisection tends to be my focus. Deliberately torturing sentient beings to death in ways which transcend our worst nightmares is a concept which traumatises me. I have been inside laboratories and their breeders, and I don’t think I can ever look myself in the mirror until animal testing ends.
I have a few anti-vivisection projects in the pipeline, which hopefully will be made public at some point.
Regrets?
I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention. I wouldn’t change a thing.
