Huntingdon Life Sci strikes back

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2001:

HUNTINGDON, U.K.– Citing five years of “physical attacks on individual employees, death threats, bomb threats, destruction of property, burglary, harassment, and intimidation,” Huntingdon Life Sciences Group of England and New Jersey and the Stephens Group investment firm of Little Rock, Arkansas, which is the largest Huntingdon creditor, on April 19 sued Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, Voices for Animals, the Animal Defense League (N.J.), In Defense of Animals, and various individual activists for alleged violation of the U.S. Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organization statute.

Huntingdon “filed a similar RICO lawsuit in 1997 against PETA and certain affiliated individuals,” the plaintiffs said. “That lawsuit resulted in the defendants agreeing to give up their campaign against Huntingdon.”

Earlier in April the drug maker Roche sued British activists Heather James, John Smith, and Gamal Gamal for posting to the Internet the names, addresses, and home telephone numbers of Roche directors and researchers, as part of a campaign to get Roche to stop contracting testing to Huntingdon. One Roche staff member was allegedly physically assaulted soon afterward.
The campaign to close Hunt-ingdon has also targeted financial firms, several of which quit doing business with Huntingdon under the pressure, including HSBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Merrill Lynch, Barclays, and Charles Schwab. On April 23, however, the 112 members of the Association of Medical Research Charities withdrew their accounts from HSBC and warned that accounts would be withdrawn from other institutions which “cave in to extremists.” The AMRC members have collective assets of $25 billion.