Animal rights militants target children's nursery firm

LONDON - Animal rights extremists have threatened to target children's nurseries in a campaign to drive a vivisection firm out of business.

Britain's biggest nursery group, Leapfrog Day Nurseries, confirmed it was told to end its voucher scheme for Huntingdon Life Sciences workers or "face the consequences".

Leapfrog said yesterday it was ending the scheme immediately due to the threat from the Animal Rights Militia group to children and its staff.

A spokesman said for the nursery company said: "While threats of any sort are totally unacceptable, we have to take them seriously.

"The care of the children and our staff is of paramount concern. We have to take every precaution when it comes to the security and safety of children and our employees."

Anti-vivisection militants, who have led a long campaign against HLS, have stepped up their operations in the last month.

The Animal Liberation Front this week claimed responsibility for a fire bomb left outside the home of Paul Blackburn, a senior executive with medicines giant GlaxoSmithKline, which has links with HLS.

The device exploded in the porch of the house while Blackburn's wife and daughter were at home, causing minor damage.

A fire bomb was also placed at a sports pavilion in Oxford owned by Corpus Christi College as a protest against a primate laboratory being built by the university. The bomb failed to properly explode.

GSK and the university have signalled their intention to defy the extremists but the threat against a firm caring for children represents a shift in tactics for the militants.

Leapfrog was named in a list of 17 companies posted five days ago on Biteback, a website used by activists to publicise their activities.

The company had been administering a tax-free vouchers scheme for staff at Huntingdon Life Sciences.

HLS recently obtained an injunction banning campaigners from targeting any of its sites, so militants are now focusing on suppliers.

The website message naming Leapfrog said: "We can see nothing which prohibits the sending of letters promising to smash the directors' houses up unless they cut all links ... One last thing, this is not a threat but a promise."

While the number of incidents by anti-vivisectionists has decreased, experts say the severity of the attacks is intensifying.

The Oxford Arson Group, which said it carried out the attack on the sports pavilion, said in its statement: "If we have to destroy every bit of property you own we will, in order to stop you inflicting your profit-driven cruelties on defenceless creatures."

- INDEPENDENT