Animal Rights Militia
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direct action that might endanger human life.
Direct action
ARM first emerged in the UK in 1985 as animal-rights activists shifted their focus away from demonstrations and more on direct action, including violence, intimidation, and the destruction of property.In 1986, ARM claimed responsibility for sending letter bombs to individuals involved in vivisection, and in 1994, ARM activists set fire to stores on the Isle of Wight, causing $6 million worth of damage. Barry Horne was subsequently jailed for 18 years for the arson attacks, dying in jail in 2001 during a hunger strike. Robin Webb, who runs the Animal Liberation Press Office in the UK, narrowly avoided being charged with conspiracy. Best, Steven. (ed) Terrorists or Freedom Fighters, 2004.
ARM came to widespread public attention in the UK in December 1998, during one of Horne's earlier hunger strikes, which lasted 68 days — carried out in protest at the British government's refusal to order a commission of inquiry into animal testing — when it threatened to assassinate a number of individuals involved in vivisection should Horne die.
Those threatened were Colin Blakemore, chief executive of the Medical Research Council; Clive Page of King’s College, London, a professor of pulmonary pharmacology and chair of the animal science group of the British Biosciences Federation; Mark Matfield of the Research Defence Society; and Christopher Brown, the owner of Hillgrove Farm in Oxfordshire, who was breeding kittens for laboratories.
Webb has implied that ARM and ALF activists, as well as activists from another violent group, the Justice Department, may be the same people. He has said: "If someone wishes to act as the Animal Rights Militia or the Justice Department? Simply put, the third policy of the ALF [to take all reasonable precautions not to endanger life] no longer applies." ["Staying on Target and Going the Distance"], an interview with Robin Webb, No Compromise, issue 22, retrieved May 23, 2006.]
Gladys Hammond
ARM claimed responsibility Britten, Nick. ["Years of hate that wore down family's resolve"], Daily Telegraph, August 24, 2005. for removing from a grave the body of the mother-in-law of Christopher Hall, part-owner of Darley Oaks Farm, which bred guinea pigs for Huntingdon Life Sciences, and which had been the target of an animal-rights campaign called Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs. Gladys Hammond's body was removed in October 2004 from a churchyard in Yoxall, Staffordshire and found buried in woodland on May 2, 2006. ["Hammond police discover remains"], BBC News, May 3, 2006.
On May 12, 2006, The Guardian reported that four individuals had been jailed for their involvement in the incident, which the paper described as "a six-year hate campaign" that included letter bombs, vandalism, and grave robbing. The judge described the group's actions as "subjecting wholly innocent citizens to a campaign of terror." The campaign included hate mail signed Animal Rights Militia and Animal Liberation Front. Morris, Steven, Ward, David, & Butt, Riazat. ["Jail for animal rights extremists who stole body of elderly woman from her grave"], ''The Guardian, May 12, 2006 Those convicted were Jon Ablewhite, 36, John Smith, 39, and Kerry Whitburn, 36, who were handed down 12-year sentences and Josephine Mayo, 38, sentenced to four years
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