Police protection for Venray mayor and alderman

after threats from animal rights activists

by Dave McGuire and Louise Dunne

10-01-2008

The mayor and an alderman in the southern Dutch town of Venray have been placed under police protection, after threats of violence by animal rights activists.

Dutch Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst says the Dutch domestic intelligence service is assessing the threats and will keep the Venray town council informed.

Animal rights demonstration
Nightly anti-Sciencelink
demonstration in Venray

The activists claimed a major victory after a property developer decided to pull out of the construction of a new industrial park near the town of Venray in the south of the Netherlands.

Animal testing
The park - called Sciencelink - will house biotech research companies, many of whom carry out testing on animals. Animal rights groups in the Netherlands are vehemently opposed to the project.

Over the Christmas period, members of the radical Animal Liberation Front (DBF) visited the homes of a number of the development company's directors, confronting them and spraying their homes with slogans such as:

"Stop Sciencelink, Stop Animal Testing", and the more threatening "This time it's just paint. Next time we won't be so friendly. See you in the new year".

The company, Van der Looy Project Management, pulled out of the development, saying the opposition has become "threatening and unacceptable".

Given in to threats
It's the first time a Dutch company has so openly given in to threats by the animal rights movement, and activists who say it won't be the last. A statement posted on the website stopdierproeven.org said:

"If other developers show any interest in taking Van de Looy's place, then we can tell them now that we will be on their doorsteps not just once, but time and again."

The radicalisation of animal rights activists in the Netherlands is of increasing concern to the Dutch intelligence service, the AIVD, which released a report on the movement's activities last year.

"Home visits" were named in the report as one of the most common tactics. Activists with balaclavas or scarves covering their faces descend on the homes of employees of companies involved directly or indirectly with animal testing. They damage cars, daub slogans on the houses and threaten family members.

Vandalism and intimidation
The group Respect For Animals is named in the AIVD report as central to the movement. The group's spokesperson, Nina Kroos, denies that it is responsible for the "home visits". She says that the members of the Animal Liberation Front are operating outside her organisation - but refuses to condemn their actions.

As far as Respect For Animals is concerned, vandalism and intimidation are justified if aimed at relieving the suffering of animals. The limit, says Kroos, is that "no-one is killed and no-one is injured".

The Venray city councillor responsible for the Sciencelink project was both astonished and upset by the news. "I've always believed we live in a democracy" he said, "and the way the animal rights activists are behaving is not the way we should treat each other". The future of the project is uncertain now that Van Der Looy has pulled out.

Tags: animal rights, Sciencelink, Venray

Reaction(s):

Melissa, 17-01-2008 - Canada

The person who asked for alternatives needs to do some research. What do you think the MANY certified-humane charities are doing with the money? Just sitting on their butts looking at it? There are plenty of humane alternatives that are actually reliable and don't hurt others. After all isn't the point to SAVE lives not destroy them? Use a search engine. Research "humane charities" and alternatives to animal testing. What do you think the certified-humane American Breast Cancer Foundation is doing with the money? REAL research, that's what! HumaneSeal.org will show you a list of all the humane charities. Feel free to write them all and ask them what they are doing with their money instead of wasting on brutally torturing innocent lives.

Evert C. Weidner, 13-01-2008 - USA

What is the alternative to what the activists ague against? Experimentation on humans instead? Do nothing? What eve the issue, threats against the life of the mayor and alderman of Venray invalidates their arguments and is equivalent of the current vicious attitude of extreme Islam when you don't agree with their ideology. Freedom, but above all, sanity, are precious thing. Unfortunately, perhaps, the world is not made up of only dreamers.

Marc, 13-01-2008 - RSA

I am absolutely in support of the animal rights activists; sometimes when you go placidly around with your protest, no one hears you. You have to bring the house down. The lack of attention in the past is what has bought about more assertive tactics of late. We humans are, as always, obsessed with ourselves and we put other living creatures on a lower peg. Yet we have elevated our numbers to more than 6 billion on this planet (i.e. hardly on the brink of dying out) - to the massive cost to other creatures. My recent observation is that the more humano-obsessive a person or society is, the less concerned they are with other creatures. They might worry about the environment, but only insofar as harm to it threatens humans.

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