ANIMAL rights activists have targeted an Oxford college and the chief executive of a pharmaceutical company in a fresh wave of attacks.

The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) claimed responsibility yesterday for leaving an explosive device containing fuel outside the home of Paul Blackburn, the corporate controller of GlaxoSmithKline. It said that Mr Blackburn was singled out because GSK was a customer of the animal testing group Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). A GSK spokesman said that the device was left on the porch of the house in Buckinghamshire and caused minor damage. Mr Blackburn was out of the country but his wife and child were at home.

A posting on the front’s website warned the pharmaceutical giant that more attacks would follow unless it severed its links with HLS. It said: “We realise that this may not be enough to make you stop using HLS but this is just the beginning. We have identified and tracked down many of your senior executives, and also junior staff, as well as those from other HLS customers. Drop HLS or you will face the consequences.”

Anti-vivisectionists attacked a sports pavilion by Corpus Christi College on Saturday in protest at the construction by Oxford University of a laboratory for primates.

Anonymous ALF activists said on its website that they would destroy all the university’s property unless it stopped building the research facility.

A website warning read: “We have spent 15 months researching you, and we know every weakness you have. We are stronger than you, we have more resolve than you and we never give up.

“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. You cannot stop us, we are free to attack you at will, whenever and wherever we choose.” Last July there was an arson attack on a boathouse that belongs to the university, and construction of the £18 million laboratory was jeopardised last year when the contractors, the Montpellier Group, pulled out because of threats to its shareholders.

The pharmaceutical industry is concerned that this is the start of a renewed violence campaign by activists.

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry said last month that there had been a worrying increase in the severity of attacks.

Meanwhile, five people were arrested in dawn raids yesterday by police investigating the theft of a woman’s remains from her grave by animal rights extremists. They include a supply teacher and a known activist, both vocal members of the animal welfare movement.

The grave of Gladys Hammond, who died at the age of 82, was desecrated in October. Mrs Hammond was the mother-in-law of the co-owner of Darley Oaks Farm at Newchurch, Staffordshire, which breeds guinea-pigs for medical research.

Explore Health

• Expert Advice

• Health Features

• Mental Health

• Alternative Medicine

• Child Health

• Health Club