2006, 2007 and Beyond

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." - Napoleon Bonaparte

As another year draws to a close, we reflect on 2006 and look ahead at what we hope to achieve in the coming year. Towards the end of 2005, building work restarted on Oxford University's animal lab, following a period of nearly 18 months’ inactivity. Progress on the new lab over the last year must have seemed painfully slow for those keen on completing the project, which is geared towards expanding Oxford University’s facilities to torture and abuse greater number of animals.

They say a week is long time in politics but a year is even longer, especially when you’re trying to complete a new laboratory and your ‘legal business’ of practicing a barbaric and flawed science is being hampered by animal rights activists determined to thwart those whose self-interest or ambitions are at odds with ethics and the true advancement of knowledge.

2006 has seen those with a vested interest in the continuation of vivisection mount an unprecedented multi-pronged offensive against SPEAK for the express purpose of destroying it. The methods used by Oxford University, their legal team, and government controlled institutions to achieve this goal have had little to do with justice, and a great deal to do with spreading false propaganda.

Many of those who have allied themselves with Oxford University have done so because it is an opportunity to make a quick profit, such is the case with their legal team but a closer examination of many of the University’s associate’s reveals that the influence of its old boy network extends to a broad spectrum of institutions and organisations and the political arena. With such allies, the maintenance of the status quo’s stability is reasonably safeguarded, even if what is being safeguarded is a flawed system that is designed to protect certain individuals and minority self interest groups, institutions, and organisations in society.

Faced with such apparently insurmountable opposition, we at SPEAK have always maintained that one should not be deflected from ones purpose because something appears to be unachievable – indeed, one should remember that appearances can be deceptive. We have never been under any illusions that taking on Oxford University would be like taking a walk in the park. Tackling this issue full on has meant keeping a very clear focus on the job in hand, namely the total abolition of vivisection and by extension, a brighter future for medical progress. Sooner or later those with the real influence are going to have to be challenged. The SPEAK campaign has never been about short term gains at the expense of the long term goals.

Week by week, SPEAK has continued to grow in strength. As long as vivisection continues to rank high on the media’s agenda, we know - despite the often unfavourable propaganda - that we as a movement are having an impact. No movement for meaningful change has ever had an easy ride, since it requires a significant shift in the status quo. The acceptance of any new or radical idea cannot come overnight, and campaigning for rights for non-human animals is no different.

The key to our success lies not in posturing or sound bites. These are the vivisection industry’s tactics, and ones, which have not always best served them. Our success lies in convincing the public of our arguments. This has to be a priority and judging from the reaction of the public up and down the country, wherever SPEAK has a demonstration or information stalls, the feedback is overwhelmingly in support of our cause. It is here where we get a true picture of how significant a shift there has been in public opinion. Just recently, a wheelchair-bound octogenarian World War II veteran, disabled while serving in North Africa 61 years ago, approached a SPEAK information stall to encourage us to keep fighting. It is people like this that we want and need to reach, for these are the people that matter, not the chief executive of some media group, or the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, whose role is to uphold the status quo.

Despite all the biased publicity, and attempts to manipulate the public, most people just aren’t buying into the propaganda about us. 2006 has seen pro-vivisection groups come and go, pro-vivisection petitions launched with media fanfare and ending in dismal failure. Every new scheme the vivisectionists have used against us ends in failure. No doubt we can expect more of the same in 2007 including more attempts by Oxford University to misuse the legal system for short term advantage when all else fails. But even this in the longer term cannot stem the growing tide of opinion against them.

As 2007 begins, SPEAK are ready to continue taking the fight to the vivisectionists and their supporters, planning new tactics and strategies against those who have evaded culpability for their role in the deaths of countless humans and non-humans. We hope you will stay with us on this journey. We can’t promise you it will be easy, or that it will be without its setbacks but we can promise you that vivisection will be consigned to the history books. Like all movements for meaningful and real change, those who were once vilified will be exonerated when people look back at the fight to end animal abuse.

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.