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Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty

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Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) is a trans-continental animal rights group. The sole purpose of SHAC is to close down the contract animal testing laboratory Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), which they accuse of animal cruelty. Founded in 1999 by Greg Avery, Heather James, and Natasha Dellemagne, it works as a leaderless direct action grassroots movement with branches in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Although there are several animal rights groups opposing the HLS, the SHAC is described by The Economist as "the most visible and effective groups hunting the firm".[1]

Although widely supported by animal rights advocates, it is a controversial organization due to the methods it employs to close down the said laboratory (such as hoax bomb parcels, threatening telephone calls, describing managers of the companies they oppose as paedophiles, etc.),[2] and it is considered a domestic terrorist threat by the FBI.

The main strategy that was employed by SHAC was secondary and tertiary targeting. Instead of targeting HLS directly, they instead targeted corporations and individuals with ties to HLS. This resulted in people not wanting to invest in HLS, and selling all their stock. This inflicted severe damage to the company. The company only survived due to government bailouts.[citation needed]

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Testing Times. Archived from The Economist, 18 January 2001.
  2. Animal rights activists guilty of Huntingdon Life Sciences blackmail campaign. Archived from The Telegraph, 23 December 2008.