Judgement Day

The animal rights movement is on the verge of achieving a truly historic victory against Oxford University. The ramifactions for the vivisection industry both in this country and abroad cannot be underestimated: it could even in the long run mean the end of the vivisection industry in this country and, ultimately, where the UK vivisection industry leads, the world follows.

The only way the pharmaceutical industry is going to seriously look into alternatives to using animals in testing new drugs is if they are forced to. It's up to the animal rights movement to, if necessary, drag them kicking and screaming into the 21st century. At the moment too many influential people prosper from the use of animals used in vivisection, from the shareholders of the multinational pharmaceutical companies, through to the animal breeders, cage and food suppliers, down to the vivisectors and animal technicians themselves. Even those building contractors who see a fast buck in building new labs are all keen on holding onto an outdated mode of testing. Whether it works isn't something that interests them. At the end of the day, it's about their profit margins and the fact that it works for them is all that matters.

The pharmaceutical industry will not give in without a fight. We must remember that they wield enormous power globally. One only has to look at their successful attempts at blackmailing a democratically elected Government into doing their bidding, in passing ever more draconian laws, which are designed to muzzle not those people engaged in illegal actions but those operating within a legal framework.

Even the media, and especially the so-called liberal wing of it, have been caught up in the hysteria of animal rights bashing. We have had the ludicrous situation of papers like the Guardian conducting a witch-hunt against the movement, whilst the bosses of the large pharmaceutical companies have been in the background pulling their collective strings. SPEAK have maintained from the outset of its campaign that this is truly a David and Goliath struggle and it is even a greater challenge to the animal rights movement when those newspapers who would like you to believe that they are bastions of 'Free Speech' collude with companies whose only motivation for existing is to make a quick profit. Whatever happened to journalistic integrity?

Over the last few months SPEAK have highlighted the illegal nature of the experiments being conducted at Oxford University and the total ineffectiveness of the current animal welfare laws supposedly protecting vivisected animals from the excesses of their tormentors. We have also managed to illustrate the dubious past of people like the current head of the Research Defence Society, Simon Festing, who has been keen on keeping his past a secret and, one might ask, for what purpose? At SPEAK we have been honest about our past, we haven't been hiding past acts in some deep dark closet. It must surely beg the question: what else is Simon Festing hiding and what more is there to uncover?

It seems unlikely that the newspapers will be doing their job in 2005, so all those people that truly believe in democracy and free speech can rest assured that SPEAK will be continuing to expose the insidious nature of the vivisection industry as well as those key people in it and the duplicity of a government in the pockets of big business. Oxford University can also be assured that despite their attempts at misusing the legal system of this country in order to silence a legal campaign, they have failed. 2005 will see SPEAK go on the offensive. Every company planning to help build the new lab in South Parks Rd will be exposed; they will not remain anonymous or invisible.

At SPEAK we intend 2005 to be a milestone in finally turning the tide of animal abuse in vivisection, we are determined to force the universities in this country and the pharmaceutical companies to look to the future and not to be stuck in some dark age of science. At SPEAK we believe in a science that protects both humans and nonhumans, a science that exists for a real greater good and not greater profit margins.

Everyone who truly cares about the plight of animals' needs to ask themselves at the beginning of 2005: what am I going to do in order to defeat the plans by Oxford University to build another animal research centre? Recent newspaper articles have reported the University as stating that the resumption of work is imminent. The tone of their statements have been both bullish and arrogant; their posturing is confrontational. The animals need you to defend them - let's make sure we don't let them down. Let's make 2005 a year to remember, a year that finally sees the demise of vivisection the world over.

Together we can and will win.

Disclaimer: The information on this website is for the purpose of legal protest and information only. It should not be used to commit any criminal acts or harassment.