Posted on 11/24/2005 10:44:41 PM PST by Coleus
First came the threatening phone calls to George Svokos' home in Franklin Lakes last December.
Then his mail was stolen. Fliers appeared on his car and those of neighbors, accusing his employer of animal slaughter and abuse.
Burglars broke into the house, stole a credit card and ran up a $5,000 bill, including a blow-up sex doll to be sent to his home.
They also stole the itinerary for an upcoming family vacation in London, circulating the details in an e-mail urging the recipients to call the hotel and "make his vacation one he'll never forget."
Svokos, president of Plantex USA Inc., a Hackensack-based drug-marketing company, alleges the series of events in a lawsuit awaiting trial in Superior Court in Hackensack. He says he was targeted by animal rights activists because his employer's parent company, Teva Pharmaceuticals USA of North Wales, Pa., tests drugs at a laboratory run by Huntingdon Life Sciences, which uses animals for testing medicines and agricultural products.
The alleged harassment fits the pattern of a ferocious effort by animal rights activists in recent years - especially a group called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC-USA) - to shut down the testing company, which has headquarters near Princeton and a small executive suite in Hackensack.
Saying the laboratory's work is cruel and unnecessary, the activists admit to a range of pressure tactics, including protests outside company offices and employee homes, threatening phone calls, and mass fax, leaflet and e-mail blitzes denouncing Huntingdon.
But the activists also face criminal charges brought by federal authorities, who say the tactics extend to vandalism and violence.
Seven SHAC members are set to go on trial in February in Trenton on federal charges of interstate stalking and conspiracy connected to the anti-Huntingdon campaign. FBI Deputy Assistant Director John Lewis told a U.S. Senate committee Wednesday that investigating campaigns waged by SHAC and other animal rights groups "is one of the FBI's highest domestic terrorism priorities."
The activists have broadened their focus, including what authorities call "secondary targets" such as Svokos - employees and officers of any company that either hires Huntingdon or has some other connection.
Huntingdon hurt
Drug giants such as GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Hoffmann-La Roche and Novartis have all been targeted. Lewis told the Senate committee that the tactics have prompted more than 100 companies to refuse to work with Huntingdon, among them Johnson & Johnson and Merck.
On Sept. 7, the New York Stock Exchange abruptly postponed a scheduled listing of Huntingdon on the Big Board, a move that many observers - including Huntingdon executives - believe was the result of activist intimidation.
An exchange attorney, Richard P. Bernard, told the committee Wednesday only that the NYSE is still evaluating the Huntingdon listing, adding that it cannot comment on the issue due to client confidentiality.
Intimidation and threats are nothing new for Huntingdon, one of the largest testing laboratories in the United States. Originally in Britain, the company moved its corporate headquarters to New Jersey in 2002 to escape British animal rights activists.
These days, Chief Financial Officer Richard Michaelson - the company's top U.S. executive - and two other senior company officials work out of an office in Hackensack, which - for security reasons — doesn't bear the company name.
For all the opposition, he said, the company - which trades as Life Sciences Research - is strong. Revenues rose from $115 million to $157.5 million between 2002 and 2005. The company, listed on the NYSE from 1989 to 2000, was de-listed when the share price fell below $1. But the price has risen since 2002 from around $2 to a peak of about $18 in August before dropping.
Michaelson declined to identify company clients, but said, "We do business with most of the world's leading biotech and pharmaceutical companies."
Critics say the company is built on abuse and cruelty to dogs, monkeys, rabbits and other animals revealed over the years by undercover investigations. They say animals shouldn't suffer so that humans can develop unnecessary items such as fertilizers and diet drugs, and liken themselves to civil rights activists.
Nick Cooney, 24, a Philadelphia resident named in the Svokos suit, denied the allegations against him personally. But he said he agrees with some of the tactics, including burglary and even violence if it saves many animals' lives, adding that the impact of these tactics on company executives pales in comparison to the pain inflicted on animals in the laboratory.
Cooney, a Hofstra University graduate with close ties to SHAC, said the Svokos suit is one of more than 20 similar cases around the country.
"These suits are nothing more than an attempt to infringe on the First Amendment rights of peaceful activists," Cooney said. "They seek to limit the number of demonstrations that can be held, where demonstrations can be held, to make educating the public about the issue more difficult."
But U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie in Newark called the activists "lawless thugs attacking innocent men, women and children."
'Terror tactics'
Prosecutors allege SHAC and the seven members charged conducted a campaign of "activity meant to harm the business of HLS in any manner available." The indictment says the seven posted a list of "top 20 terror tactics" on the SHAC Web site along with daily targets, which were then hit with vandalism and intimidation.
"The primary story here is really not whether you challenge whether or not what we do is ethical or not," Michaelson said. "The issue here is whether or not we allow individuals to coerce others to refrain from lawful activities."
Michaelson pointed out that the U.S. government mandates that early stage drugs be tested on animals before they are used on humans. He said 80 percent of Huntingdon's tests are conducted on rodents, though some dogs, monkeys and pigs are used. Some are killed afterward so that effect of the drugs can be studied, he said.
Michaelson admitted that the activists have had an impact.
At least two Huntingdon board members have resigned as a result of the campaign, Michaelson said. So, too, have more than 40 market makers of Huntingdon stock, company auditor Deloitte & Touche, the security firm that protects the Huntingdon laboratory, its landscaping contractor and even the person who delivers employee sandwiches, he said.
Last week, several institutions sold Huntingdon stock after they were targeted by a Brooklyn-based animal rights group, pushing shares down from just over $15 at the start of the month to $11.35 Friday, he said.
Activists brought their campaign to Saddle Brook on a recent afternoon as seven protesters, including Cooney, mounted a raucous picket outside the offices of Thomson Horstmann & Bryant, a fund manager.
Members of the group, called Hugs For Puppies, looked mostly in their 20s and said they had traveled from Long Island and Philadelphia.
Alleged death toll
They held up placards depicting a wounded, bleeding beagle and two white rabbits, their heads trapped in a neck-grip, which the protestors said help technicians administer eye drops. One sign said that 500 animals die every day at the laboratory - a figure Michaelson said is vastly exaggerated - with a headline: "Puppy killers — close them down."
Cooney, the apparent leader, said that SHAC had previously sent letters to Thomson Horstmann & Bryant demanding the firm sell its Huntingdon shares. He delivered anti-Huntingdon leaflets to a visibly shaken employee at Thomson's fifth-floor office, then came back outside to harangue building occupants with a bullhorn.
"We are here today, because Thomson Horstmann & Bryant on the fifth floor of your building invest in one of the most cruel and disgusting companies in the country," he shouted.
He urged the company to sell off its shares or "you will find us outside your office or outside your homes, or outside your churches or family picnics."
Two days later, according to an e-mail supplied by Cooney, the company announced it no longer held Huntingdon stock. The company did not return a request for comment.
That wasn't how Svokos, Plantex and Teva - an Israeli company that is one of the larger generic manufacturers - reacted to the pressure, when they were targeted late last year. Instead, they filed suit, detailing a campaign not only against Svokos, but Teva CEO George Barrett, other company employees and even against their churches.
Aside from Cooney and SHAC, the 10-count suit names as defendants two other animal rights groups and Hugs For Puppies. It seeks damages and a court injunction to stop the activity - a remedy that was granted temporarily in April by Superior Court Judge Peter E. Doyle, who restricted how close activists could picket to the Svokos residence.
A Teva spokesman said Svokos would not comment. The company also did not respond to other questions on the case.
Newark attorney Bennett D. Zurofsky - who represents SHAC but not the other defendants - denied the allegations against his client. The organization merely runs a Web site that promotes the campaign against Huntingdon, and didn't take part in the alleged activities, he said.
SHAC members support "some illegal means, as long as they are not harmful of either human or animal life," Zurofsky said.
"There's a difference between advocating a position, and actually going out and doing something."
* * * Huntingdon Life Sciences
1952: Huntingdon Life Sciences is formed to conduct nutrition, veterinary and biochemical research.
1989: Company stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange as a foreign company.
1997: A British documentary shows an HLS technician hitting a beagle, incensing animal rights activists. Other footage showed a technician slitting open a live monkey.
1998: Huntingdon agrees to pay a $50,000 fine to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to settle 23 animal-welfare charges, including a failure to use appropriate anesthetics or sedatives.
1999: Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) formed in the United Kingdom with the aim of shutting down HLS, then Europe's largest animal-testing lab.
2000: Huntingdon delisted from NYSE after share prices fall below $1, partly due to the effect of animal rights attacks.
2001: Huntingdon CEO Brian Cass is attacked in England by activists wielding baseball bats.
2001: SHAC-USA is formed.
2002: British government steps in to provide Huntingdon with insurance coverage when no private company will do so.
2002: Huntingdon moves its world HQ to New Jersey to escape British animal rights activists. The company trades under the name Life Sciences Research.
May 2004: SHAC and seven members are indicted in federal court in Newark on conspiracy and interstate stalking charges.
September 2005: An hour before Huntingdon was due to be listed by the NYSE, the exchange postpones the listing.
Sources: Huntingdon Life Sciences; Stop Huntingdon Life Sciences; The Daily Mail; U.S. attorney for New Jersey; Associated Press
Brainstorm: How about we use these animal rights "activists" instead of monkeys and mice for lab tests?
More accurate results, and no controversy! Perfect, huh?
Old story--
They have stopped using rats as test animals, now they are going to use lawyers for three good reasons
1)there are more of them (lawyers)
2)some of the lab workers got attached to the rats
AND
3)There are just somethings you can`t ask a rat to do
Have a turkey sandwich and say goodnite
Meanwhile across town, members of animal rights group PETA protested a parental notification bill.....
A short while ago one of these activist hypocrites allowed herself to be treated with cancer drugs developed by labs like this.
When confronted, she said she would still fight to shut them down, but she didn't see why she shouldn't benefit from the drug she was trying to deny to others. I think she shoulc have just died from the cancer, to prove her point.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
There are still plenty of issues we agree on, including this one.
We have all dropped through the Rabbit Hole
Why don't they go after the French fishermen who embed several hooks in a puppy and throw it overboard on a line to catch a shark?
Do I detect the telltale sign of liberal twofacedness here?
Animals have no rights because rights come with responsibilities and it would be unfair to expect animals to fulfill responsibilities. We have the right to use animals as we see fit because we have the responsibility to be humane.
Why? are they afraid that their soldiers will get a little of their own medicine? Find out how they like a group of protestors on their front lawn....never mind. they live in a garbage dump no doubt.
If they could get them on stealing the mail, it's a Federal crime.
Time for some payback.
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