SHAC Ends 15 Year War Against Animal Testing Company

According to The Independent, the UK chapter of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), an activist group that employs direct action to expose and shut down animal testing company Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), has ended its campaign due to an “onslaught of government repression.” Over the years, dozens of SHAC activists, including the group’s leaders, have been sent to jail. SHAC targeted HLS because undercover videos taken inside the labs, in which millions of animals have died, showed extreme abuse and animal torture. What made SHAC activists unique was not only the sheer boldness of their tactics but also their strategy of targeting institutions that do business with the HLS – their banks, suppliers and contractors. If SHAC could cut off the oxygen, then the company would suffocate.

Social justice movements always grow in strength, and animal rights is no exception. SHAC says it will “reassess our methods, obstacles and opponent’s weaknesses” and will “seek to influence the government into changing the law to prevent animal cruelty.” In 2006, six members of the U.S. chapter of SHAC were imprisoned under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. Learn more about animal testing and why – extreme cruelty aside – it’s an antiquated approach.