Business leaders fail to back campaign against animal activists

Britain's business community was reluctant yesterday to throw its weight behind the pharmaceuticals industry which had issued a clarion call to company leaders to stand up to animal rights activists.

In an open letter, published in The Independent yesterday, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry and other sector organisations, called on all businesses that have been targeted by the animal rights movement in the past to stand together and "banish these extremists to the margins of society".

To reinforce its message, the ABPI will now write to 30 companies and trade associations within the banking, construction, transport and services sectors, including the British Bankers' Association, the Confederation of British Industry and the Association of British Insurers.

The letter met with a muted reaction yesterday.

Several organisations, including the CBI and the ABI declined to comment.

Ian Mullen, the BBA's chief executive, said: "These are single-issue extremists the same as any terrorists and the Government is treating them as such.

The industry supports the Government in this regard."The Royal Bank of Scotland, which withdrew banking services to the animal testing company Huntingdon Life Sciences in 2002 after itself becoming a target of animal rights activists, said it would consider the letter carefully once it received it.

The banking giant HSBC reiterated its "broad support for medical research as a whole and its determination to continue to provide banking services to this important sector".

However, it stressed: "HSBC has recognised its moral legal and legal responsibilities to staff in the event that they suffer distress as a result of threats and intimidation by animal rights activists.

As a commercial organisation, HSBC would have no other option than to protect them."

The Construction Confederation said it was up to individual contractors to decide whether they wanted to get involved in animal research building projects.

Professor Colin Blakemore of the Medical Research Council, a signatory to the letter, said: "It is unlikely that businesses will make these decisions on the spot.

I suspect they will be more likely to talk to the ABPI confidentially.

The strategy of the extremists is to attack anyone who is willing to talk on this issue."

Professor Blakemore has been under attack from the animal rights movement for 19 years.

He has received several letter bombs and six cars have been destroyed in his driveway.

- INDEPENDENT