Pro-Test: Information & Media

Pro-Test to March Again

Pro-Test will be holding another march on 3 June 2006 in support of the new Oxford Biomedical Research Facility and animal research.

The march will begin at 11:45 on Parks Road, between the intersections with Broad Street and South Parks Road. Speeches on Parks Road will begin at approximately Midday.

The demonstration will start on Parks Road, go down Catte Street, along High Street, up Longwall Street, along Holywell Street, into Parks Road and up into South Parks Road where there will be closing speeches.

Speakers for 3 June are still being confirmed. The last march gathered over 800 people in central Oxford, distinguished speakers included Dr. Evan Harris, Liberal Democrat science spokesman and MP for Oxford West.

Get involved: email us with any questions you have about the march (press enquiries should go here). We are happy to help coordinate transport arrangements for those travelling from outside Oxford. Contact Chris Bickerton if you would like to bring a group down from another university.

This is a major national issue: a proposed animal lab was scrapped by Cambridge University in the face of animal rights extremism, and the line must be drawn here. Medical research is under threat -- are you ready to stand up for science?

GSK update

In a further reflection of the way the public climate around animal testing is rapidly shifting, seven major investment companies have spoken out publicly against the extremists threatening GlaxoSmithKline shareholders, declaring they will not be intimidated and vowing to maintain their investments in GSK. In a letter to the Financial Times, ABP Investments, the Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme, F C Asset Management, Hermes Investment Management, the Public Sector Superannuation Fund, and the Wellcome Trust pledge to "stand firm alongside the small shareholders" in support of "lawful research to the benefit of society". They continue: "Our funds represent millions of individual beneficial corporate owners who may benefit from the results of such research both directly and indirectly."

The difference between today and 2004 - when HLS were forced off the New York Stock Exchange and were almost bankrupted when major investors (which included the Labour Party!) dumped their shares in panic - is again very striking. Pro-Test is delighted that as the scientific and moral arguments for animal testing are being aired more forcefully to counter the irrational arguments of 'animal rights' campaigners, public opinion is becoming increasingly supportive, to the extent that individuals and institutions are proud to declare their connections to this crucial form of research. The more people stand up together, the more ridiculous groups like CAHALS look in claiming that they will be able to intimidate everyone to give up their stake in animal research.

Pro-Test in Solidarity with GSK Shareholders

'Animal rights' campaigners have launched a campaign of intimidation against private shareholders of the pharamceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), sending them letters threatening to publish their personal details online if they fail to sell their shares in the company, which is involved in animal testing. GSK has obtained an injunction against further harrassment of their shareholders.

As the Research Defence Society points out, the newly-appeared Campaign Against Huntingdon Animal Life Sciences (CAHLS), the group behind the campaign of intimidation, has its work cut out for it if it really thinks it can harrass GSK's shareholders into bailing out - there are 167,000 of them in total.

The Pro-Test committee has bought 10 shares in GSK, one for each member of our committee. We are proud to stand up against such extremism, in solidarity with GSK and its shareholders, and all the millions of people who have seen medical benefits from animal research and refuse to be intimidated into abandoning hope of future advances. We believe there is no shame in being connected with animal research that saves lives and cures diseases.

What's more, we're far from alone. Public opinion is so vehemently pro-animal-testing that GSK's share prices have gone up, by 18p yesterday on the London Stock Exchange -- people are apparently buying up GSK shares to express how they feel, more than off-setting any fear caused by CAHLS's poison-pen letters.

This is a far cry from the campaign of shareholder intimidation waged by CAHLS's predecessor group, Stop Huntingdon Animal Life Sciences (SHAC, see here for more details), against HLS that forced it to de-list from the New York Stock Exchange and almost bankrupted the company. It's also a far cry from the shareholder intimidation that contributed to construction firm Montpellier's decision to pull out of the Oxford lab project in July 2004.

As a spokesman for the British Pharmaceutical Industry said in the Independent yesterday, public opinion is shifting rapidly in favour of continued animal research as people learn more about the benefits and the science behind the research, assisted by groups like Pro-Test, which raise awareness of the issues and provide hard facts to counter the irrationality of groups like CAHALS, SHAC and SPEAK.

Coverage - Pro-Test members in the News:

Prof Tipua Aziz on BBC News 24 and the Bill Heine show (10 May)
Laurie Pycroft on More4's top story (10 May)
Iain Simpson on BBC2's 'Newsnight' (10 May)
Jim Panton on Radio 5 Live (11 May)
Associated Press Wire (11 May, widely syndicated)
The Herald (11 May)

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