Following the release of covert video footage showing shocking abuse and medical experimentation on animals at the Huntingdon Life Sciences laboratory in 1997, the international animal rights campaign Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) was formed to bring an end to the abuse at HLS.

SHAC protesters take to the streets. Source: theirturn.net

SHAC quickly became a global movement with organizers campaigning across six continents to close HLS and end the abuse. According to the SHAC Justice Project,

Whenever a company with business connections to HLS was identified, they became the subject of international action. No matter where they were located in the world, they would be the subject of protests, nonviolent direct action, civil disobedience, vigils, letter writing campaigns, phone calls, emails, and a plethora of other nonviolent protest tactics.

SHAC was unapologetic in their approach and ran hard hitting campaigns with the single aim to close down HLS. The campaign took a microscope to HLS’ business practices and identified everything essential to its day to day operation, and then one by one they removed those pillars.

SHAC organizers successfully pressured customers, suppliers, and financial institutions to stop dealing with HLS. Then, on December 21, 2000, HLS was dropped from the New York Stock Exchange. A few months later HLS was also dropped from the London Stock Exchange. For HLS, business as usual was becoming more and more difficult.

In 2004, six SHAC organizers in the United States were imprisoned for running a website that advocated and reported on both legal and illegal protests against the lab. While none of the defendants were accused of personally engaging in illegal actions, as the Center for Constitutional Rights notes, they were “indicted on federal “animal enterprise terrorism” charges, for allegedly conspiring under the Animal Enterprise Protection Act (AEPA).”

Still, organizers around the world continued to protest HLS’ ongoing animal abuse. More countries made stricter laws and more activists were imprisoned. In 2009, no longer able to publicly trade their shares, HLS was forced to become private. In 2015, in order to continue its operations, HLS merged with other companies and became Envigo. Envigo continues its practices of abuse and medical experimentation on animals.

Additional Resources

The SHAC Model: A Critical Assessment in Rolling Thunder

Learning From a Landmark Animal Rights Campaign by Trent Davidson

Your Neighbour Kills Puppies: Inside the Animal Liberation Movement by Tom Harris (Pluto Press, UK)

The Animal People, a documentary about the SHAC 7. Free to watch on Tubi. Watch the trailer below.

This post was written by the Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar collective, which is an educational and fundraising project founded in 2001 to raise awareness and funds for political prisoners held in North America. The collective was formed by Black Liberation Army political prisoners Herman Bell and Robert Seth Hayes and white anti-imperialist political prisoner David Gilbert — all of whom have since gained their freedom after decades of incarceration — and outside supporters.