Greg Avery
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Greg Avery (b. 1963) is a British animal rights activist. He is chiefly known as a founding member of several influential animal rights campaigns — focusing on opposition to the animal testing industry — that have dramatically altered the nature of the animal rights movement in the UK.
His latest involvement is with Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), an international campaign to force the closure of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), a controversial animal-testing company based in the UK and U.S.
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[edit] Personal life
Was born and raised near Buxton in Derbyshire, one of six brothers.[1] Like his mother, he trained as a tailor.[2] He joined the animal rights movement at the age of 15, and has devoted himself to it full-time ever since.[1] Avery has been married to Natasha Constance Dellemagne, also an animal rights activist, since 2002. His first wife, Heather James, now Nicholson, was active with Avery in founding a number of prominent animal rights campaigns. Avery, Dellemagne (now known as Natasha Avery) and James remain friends and continue to work together within the movement. As of 2004, the three were reported to be living together in a cottage provided by a wealthy supporter, Virginia Jane Steele.[3][4]
[edit] Activism
Avery has been a founding member of some of the most prominent and successful animal rights groups and campaigns in the UK. These include the Northern Animal Liberation League, the Consort beagle campaign,[5] Save the Hill Grove Cats,[6] and most recently SHAC.[7] He is also a vocal supporter of the SPEAK campaign, which aims to stop the construction by Oxford University of a new animal testing laboratory on South Parks Road, Oxford.
[edit] SHAC campaign
Avery started SHAC in November 1999 with his first wife, Heather James, now Heather Nicholson, after video footage shot covertly inside HLS by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals was aired on British television.[8] Footage shot in the UK showed HLS staff shouting at, shaking, punching, and laughing at the animals.[9] Footage shot later in the U.S. appears to show a live monkey being dissected.[10] Heather James and the Averys publish reports on the SHAC website and by mail, and provide press information and interviews. The website and mailing list serve as a platform for supporters. Action reports are published on the website and mailed out to subscribers, and may contain details of potential targets and lists of the companies that have severed links with HLS. According to Greg Avery, "[t]hey've made their beds and now it's time to lie in them, and they're all whining."[11] The information disseminated and shared between activists allows SHAC groups throughout the UK and North America to act autonomously. SHAC maintains a decentralized leaderless resistance approach with no central leadership. The campaign has had many effects on HLS, such as shareholders selling back their shares,[citation needed] whilst campaigners have been accused of being associated with the Animal Liberation Front (ALF).[12]
[edit] Arrests and convictions
In 1996, Avery spent 18 months on remand after police found incendiary devices in the house where he was staying with another activist. He was later acquitted. He was sentenced in 1998 to six months for affray, and 14 days later that year for offences under the Public Order Act.
In 2002, Avery, Heather James, and Natasha Dellemagne were jailed for 12 months, six suspended, for conspiracy to incite a public nuisance. In July 2006, Dellemagne and James were sentenced to 16 months in jail, along with 19-year old Daniel Wadham, who was sentenced to 12 months in detention, for an attack on a car displaying a Countryside Alliance sticker. The three were convicted of verbally abusing and spitting on the occupants, a 75-year-old woman, a woman in her 40s, and a 21-year old man.[13]
On May 1, 2007, after a series of raids involving 700 police officers in England, Amsterdam, and Belgium, 32 people linked to SHAC were arrested, including Avery and Dellemagne, who were charged with conspiracy to blackmail.[14][15][16]
Avery and the others have remained in custody since that date.In June 2008 a dismissal hearing was itself dismissed and the full trial will now begin in September. At the request of a number of the defendants the Judge indicated that a discount of one third off the full tarrif of 14 years would be applied in the event of a guily plea. All have until July to enter a plea.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Boggan, Steve. Money talks The Guardian, June 1, 2006.
- ^ Cook, John. Thugs for Puppies The Salon, John Cook, retrieved October 1, 2006.
- ^ Goodwin, Jo-Ann. "The Animals of Hatred", The Daily Mail, October 15, 2003.
- ^ Doward, Jamie. Sex and violence allegations split animal rights campaign, The Guardian, April 11, 2004.
- ^ Consort beagles closes, Coventry Animal Alliance, July 1997.
- ^ Mann, Keith. From Dusk 'til Dawn: An insider's view of the growth of the Animal Liberation Movement. Puppy Pincher Press, 2007, p. 536.
- ^ Alleyne, Richard. "Terror tactics that brought a company to its knees", The Daily Telegraph, January 19, 2001.
- ^ Doward, Jamie and Townsend, Mark. "Beauty and The Beasts", The Observer, August 1, 2004.
- ^ Inside HLS video
- ^ Live monkey video
- ^ "Red in Tooth and Law".
- ^ Jamie Doward and Mark Townsend Beauty and the beasts, The Observer, August 1, 2004.
- ^ Animal Rights Trio Jailes For Grandma Attack Life Style Extra, 25 July 2006
- ^ "Animal rights extremism - police arrest 32 people", National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit press release, May 1, 2007.
- ^ "Operation Achilles - twelfth person charged", National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit.
- ^ "Animal rights activists involved in bid to shut lab among 30 arrested in raids", May 2, 2007.
[edit] Further reading
- Vaughan, Claudette. "SHAC Interviewed: Greg Avery Speaks Out", Abolitionist.Online, undated, retrieved February 26, 2006
- Vegan Prisoners Support Group (VPSG)
- SHAC UK Prisoner Support
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