IN RESPONSE to your article on so-called “animal rights fanatics” (April 23), I think that I represent the great majority of animal rights supporters in decrying violence. The case for animal rights rests on human rights. When we violate one, we violate the other.

Vivisection labs cause animals pain, misery and death, and should be actively opposed — but not by violence and intimidation, which entrench the opposition and stigmatise a social movement that deserves support.

Jonathan Balcombe, York

Bullied but unbowed

THE police and courts have not been idle over this issue. People have gone to prison for very petty offences which, in any other circumstances, would have been ignored. Activists have been put in hospital by security guards at peaceful demonstrations.

I myself sustained a fractured femur, lost a litre of blood and suffered permanent scarring and a limp after an unprovoked attack by a police officer. This might be considered a little over the top if, for example, I had been a drug dealer or someone who battered old ladies. As a midwife involved in non-violent direct action, the consensus — certainly where politicians and the media are concerned — has been to turn a blind eye.

Lynn Sawyer,
lynn@sawyer8749.freeserve.co.uk

Expose the extremists

MY PARTNER works for a healthcare company which has recently been targeted by an extremist animal rights group. The actions have included demonstrating at the company’s head offices and defacing property owned by the managing director and chairman. We have now received advice that these protesters may target our home, which is unacceptable behaviour for any cause.

We do not have children, but a close friend, also in the company, does and is very concerned about the effect an attack on his home will have on his family.

I would like to see the names and addresses published of any animal rights protester convicted of criminal damage to someone else’s property. What gives them a right to anonymity that is not extended to their victims?

What exactly do these people think they are going to achieve? They may succeed in stopping animal testing in the UK and Europe, but this will only result in the testing being moved to other countries.

Name and address supplied.