Huntingdon Life Sciences

Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) is a contract animal-testing company founded in 1952 in England, now with facilities in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire and Eye, Suffolk in the UK; New Jersey in the U.S.; and in Japan. The largest such commercial operation in Europe, it conducts tests on around 75,000 animals every year — including rats, rabbits, pigs, dogs, and primates [ [http://www.primateresearch.com/HLS06.pdf 2006 APHIS Report for Huntingdon Life Sciences] ] — testing pharmaceutical products, agricultural chemicals, industrial chemicals, and foodstuffs on behalf of private clients worldwide. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1123837.stm "A controversial laboratory"] , BBC News, January 18, 2001; [http://www.drugresearcher.com/news/ng.asp?n=72122-faseb-us-government-huntingdon "New bill clamps down on animal activist activity"] , "Drug Researcher", November 17, 2006; [http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=42 "From push to shove"] Southern Poverty Law Group "Intelligence Report", Fall 2002; [http://www.xenodiaries.org "Diaries of despair"] , xenodiaries.org, "Uncaged Campaigns", retrieved June 18, 2006 (A report about the transplanation of pig hearts and kidneys onto the necks, abdomens, and chests of monkeys and baboons captured from the wild; the experiments were carried out by Imutran Ltd, a subsidiary of Novartis Pharma AG, in conjunction with Cambridge University, and took place at Huntingdon Life Sciences); Townsend, Mark. [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,940033,00.html "Exposed: secrets of the animal organ lab"] , "The Observer", April 20, 2003.]

Huntingdon has been under intense financial pressure since 1999, when a group of British animal rights activists set up Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), an international campaign to close the company down. The campaign was started after film shot secretly inside Huntingdon, and shown on British television, showed staff punching and laughing at the animals in their care. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2465/is_2_31/ai_71634854 "Seeing Is Believing – cruelty to dogs at Huntingdon Life Sciences"] , "The Ecologist", March 2001.] Since then the company has suffered a severe financial downturn and several of its staff and customers have been subject to direct action that has sometimes been illegal and even violent. Financial figures released by the company in 2007 report a 5 percent increase in gross profits of $50 million on revenues of $190 million, leading managing director Brian Cass to plead to the financial services industry to stop treating Huntingdon as "radioactive."Jack, Andrew. [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1554a4b6-646c-11dc-90ea-0000779fd2ac.html Call to resist animal rights threats] , "Financial Times", September 16, 2007.] __TOC__

History

Originally the company concentrated on nutrition, veterinary and biochemical research. An expansion of services in the late 1950s led to the testing of pharmaceuticals, crop protection products, food additives and a variety of industrial and consumer chemicals. This set the company on its present path to becoming a leading provider of toxicology testing.

HLS's managing director, Brian Cass, was awarded the CBE in 2002 for services to medical research and in May 2003, the company was accredited by the Association For Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC). [ [http://www.aaalac.org/accreditedorgs/aaalaclistall.cfm Accredited Organisations] , Association For Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care, accessed March 6, 2007]

Controversy

Huntingdon is criticised by animal rights and animal welfare groups for documented instances of animal abuse and for the wide range of substances it tests on animals, particularly non-medical products.

The company's labs have been infiltrated by undercover animal rights activists several times since the 1980s. In 1997, film secretly recorded inside HLS in the UK by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) showed serious breaches of animal-protection laws, including a beagle puppy being held up by the scruff of the neck and repeatedly punched in the face, and animals being taunted. The investigation led to the company's Home Office licence being revoked in April 1997 for six months. At the time, the company's shares stood at £1.13: within three years they were worth 2.5 pence. Huntingdon officials said that the breaches were isolated cases. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1123000/1123837.stm A controversial laboratory] , BBC News, January 18, 2001.]

On July 24, 1997, Home Office minister George Howarth told the House of Commons: "Shortcomings relating to the care, treatment and handling of animals, and delegation of health checking to new staff of undetermined competence, demonstrate that the establishment was not appropriately staffed and that animals were not at all times provided with adequate care." According to Zoe Broughton, the activist who filmed the incidents, three of the laboratory technicians responsible were suspended from HLS the day after the film was broadcast on Channel 4 television as "It's a Dog's Life." Two of the men seen hitting and shaking dogs were found guilty under the Animals Act of 1911 of "cruelly terrifying dogs." It was the first time laboratory technicians had been prosecuted for animal cruelty in the UK.

Since then, the company's labs have been accused by animal rights supporters of a similar offence in the United States. In 1998, an undercover investigator for PETA used a camera hidden in her glasses to make 50 hours of videotape of the HLS laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey. She also made four 90-minute audiotapes, photocopied 8,000 company documents, and copied the company's client list. Some of the film she shot showed a monkey being dissected while still alive and, according to PETA, conscious. The president of HLS in New Jersey, Alan Staple, said the monkey was alive but sedated during the dissection.Kolata, Gina. "Tough Tactics In One Battle Over Animals In the Lab," "The New York Times", March 24, 1998.]

According to Tony Blair's office while he was prime minister, he was a supporter of HLS — a spokesman called him "very pro-science in relation to this" [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1120259.stm Pressure builds on animal tests lab] , BBC News, January 26, 2001.] — although HLS's MD Brian Cass reportedly referred to Blair as a "bastard." The company has argued that if their research is stopped in Britain, it may be moved elsewhere, to a country with less rigorous animal-protection legislation and with a loss of British jobs.

Protests and intimidation

The Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, (SHAC) campaign is based in the UK and U.S., and aims to close the company down. According to its website, the campaign's methods are restricted to non-violent “direct action”, as well as lobbying and demonstrations. It targets not only HLS itself, but any company, institution, or person doing business with the laboratory, whether as clients, suppliers, or even disposal and cleaning services. As a result, HLS has been forced to set up its own delivery, security, catering, and laundry services because outside suppliers declined to do business with it.

Despite its stated non-violent position, SHAC has been accused of encouraging arson and violent assault. An HLS director was assaulted in front of his child.Piercy, Nigel. "Market-Led Strategic Change: A Guide to Transforming the Process of Going to Market". Butterworth-Heinemann 2002, p. 125.] HLS managing director Brian Cass was sent a mousetrap primed with razor blades, and in February 2001 was attacked by three men armed with pickaxe handles and CS gas. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1494924.stm Jail for lab boss attacker] , BBC News, August 16 2001] Both SHAC and Animal Liberation Front activists have engaged in harassment and intimidation, including issuing hoax bomb threats and death threats. [ [http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=288432003 Counting the cost of fear] , Scotland on Sunday, 9 March 2003.] "The Daily Mail" cites as an example the sending of 500 letters to the neighbours of a company manager who did business with HLS; the letter contained an unsupported allegation that the man was a paedophile, with police having to inform all 500 households that the allegations were false. [ [http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/ar-news/Week-of-Mon-20031013/008215.html "The Animals of Hatred"] , "Daily Mail", October 15, 2003.]

Effect of campaign

:"Main article: Effect of campaign on HLS and its customers"

The campaign brought HLS to the brink of collapse, although in September 2007, Cass said that the company's finances had stabilized and that it was "mostly business as usual."

In 2000, SHAC obtained a list of HLS shareholders, including the names of beneficial owners: anonymous individuals and companies who bought shares in the name of a third party. These included the British Labour Party pension funds, Rover cars, and the London Borough of Camden. The list was passed to the "Sunday Telegraph", and several beneficial owners disposed of their shares, including the Labour Party. ["Lab that tests Labour's ethical policy," January 23, 2000; "Labour pension fund sells animal research lab shares," January 30, 2000; Harrison, David and Foggo, Daniel. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2000/12/03/nlab03.xml "Terrorist target lab's shareholders"] , "The Sunday Telegraph", December 03, 2000.] Two weeks later, an equity stake of 32 million shares was placed on the London Stock Exchange for one penny each and HLS quotes crashed. The Royal Bank of Scotland, closed HLS's bank account, and wrote off an £11.6 million loan in exchange for a payment of just £1 in order to distance itself from the company.Piercy, Nigel. "Market-Led Strategic Change: A Guide to Transforming the Process of Going to Market". Butterworth-Heinemann 2002, p. 126.] The British government arranged for the state-owned Bank of England to give them an account, because no other bank would do business with them. The British Banking Association said "Huntingdon Life Sciences are in a nightmare situation." [Huntingdon Life Sciences financial report 2002.] The company's share price, worth around £300 in the 1990s fell to £1.75 in January 2001, stabilizing at 3 pence by mid-2001.

On December 21, 2000, HLS was dropped from the New York Stock Exchange because of its share collapse: its market capitalization had fallen below NYSE limits and the NYSE did not accept HLS's revised business plan.Potter, Will. [http://www.counterpunch.org/potter05042006.html "Green is the New Red"] , "Counterpunch", May 4, 2006.] On March 29, 2001, Huntingdon lost both of its market makers and its place on the main platform of the London Stock Exchange.

HLS later decided to move its financial centre to the United States to take advantage of stricter U.S. securities laws, which allow greater anonymity for shareholders. It incorporated in Maryland as Life Sciences Research, Inc. and was saved from bankruptcy when its largest shareholder, American investment bank Stephens, Inc, gave the company a $15-million loan. On September 7, 2005, the New York stock exchange asked Life Sciences Research/HLS to delay its listing; the company had been listed on the junior OTC bulletin board since its move out of the UK. The NYSE offered no reason for the delay, but "The Guardian" reported it was "after animal rights extremists stepped up their activity in the US," [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1565018,00.html Huntingdon delays listing after attacks] , "The Guardian", September 8 2005.] and on February 4, 2006, the company lost its only listed market maker, Legacy Trading. As a result, it could no longer trade on the OTC Bulletin Board. As of December 2006, Life Sciences Research is listed on the NYSE Arca electronic exchange. [ [http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/061222/20061222005054.html?.v=1 NYSE Arca electronic exchange] ]

On June 4, 2006, the Dresdner Bank, Huntingdon Life Sciences largest institutional shareholder with 4.7% [http://moneycentral.msn.com/ownership?Holding=Institutional+Ownership&Symbol=LSR] of the company's shares, issued a statement saying they had sold their shares after pressure from the campaign. [http://www.shac.net/ARCHIVES/2007/June/6.htm] Fact|date=June 2007 Another major shareholder, Wachovia Bank, sold its 20,000 HLS shares following a handful of attacks in America in November 2007.Fact|date=February 2008

References

Further reading

* [http://www.huntingdon.com/ Huntingdon Life Sciences home page]
* [http://www.huntingdon.com/index.php?currentNumber=4&currentIsExpanded=0 HLS stance on animal testing]
* [http://www.shac.net SHAC: "Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty" website]
* [http://www.closehls.net Close HLS]