HuntingNet.com Forums - Unbelievable Animal Rights Whackos!

I saw this on the news, and I just had to share it with you guys. It's not really about hunting and its not local, but it shows the amazing depths that these animal rights whackos will stoop. If anybody thinks that there can any comprise at all or of any kind with these $@#^'s, think again: this is what we're up against:

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LONDON (Reuters) - Four British animal rights protesters have admitted plotting to blackmail the owners of a farm that bred guinea pigs for medical research during a fierce six-year campaign, police said Tuesday.

David Hall and Partners who ran the family business at the Darley Oaks Farm in central England, endured abuse, death threats and firebomb attacks during one of the UK's most sustained harassment campaigns by animal rights groups.

In the worst incident, in October 2004, the grave of Gladys Hammond, mother-in-law of one of the co-owners who had died in 1997 aged 82, was dug up and her remains stolen.

They have never been found.

The sustained campaign, from 199 to 2005, led the family to announce last year they would give up breeding guinea pigs at their farm in Newchurch, Staffordshire, and would return to traditional farming.

Staffordshire Police said Tuesday Jon Ablewhite, 36, Kerry Whitburn, 36, John Smith, 39, and Josephine Mayo, 38, had now all admitted conspiracy charges at hearings at Nottingham Crown Court.

They will be sentenced at hearings on May 11 and 12.

"These people orchestrated a long running and unpleasant campaign to cause fear and suffering to anyone connected with Darley Oaks farm," said Harry Ireland, the Chief Crown Prosecutor of Staffordshire.

"Although the prosecution could not prove they actually physically stole the body of Gladys Hammond, they have admitted using that theft as part of their campaign."

The Save The Newchurch Guinea Pigs campaign group said in a message left on an answerphone that its campaign was over and the group was now focused on preventing a new animal research center being built at Oxford University.

That campaign has become the focal point for animal rights activists in Britain, which is home to some of the world's most vociferous and militant groups.

Last year, the government was forced to introduce tougher legislation to target protesters who obstructed experiments and threatened medical research.

A specialist police unit was also set up to target extremists who used violence or intimidation.

That came after the UK's oldest and largest animal testing center, Huntingdon Life Sciences, nearly collapsed in 2001 when frequently violent protests caused financiers to pull out.
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