Animal rights activists have threatened violence against all staff and students at Oxford over the university’s plans for a £20m animal research laboratory. In a posting on an internet site last week, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) told its supporters that any academic, student or company connected to Oxford was a legitimate target, irrespective of whether they were involved in animal research.

An anonymous communiqué declared: “This is just the beginning of our campaign of devastation against anyone linked in any way to Oxford University.”

As a first-year classicist at Christ Church, this means I have to think twice before wearing my college scarf around town. On the last Saturday of every month, 400 or more animal rights protesters gather by the labs. Though policed, they hurl abuse at my scientist friends, letting off foghorns and waving banners that read “Animal Testing Causes Cancer” or “Small Children Die Because of Animal Testing”.

What’s ironic is that if the animal rights activists had thought it through, they would have seen students are their natural allies. We might have been willing to listen if they offered a calm and considered argument, but now all most of us feel is intimidated. Some of us refuse to be scared by these people, though. They are terrorists in the literal sense — they want to instil terror in all of us.

The ALF has harassed and published pictures of the builders who are constructing the lab, and called them Nazis. These poor builders have been forced to wear balaclavas to work. Last July, the ALF claimed responsibility for firebombing Hertford College boathouse. The result? A poll in an Oxford student paper revealed that 85% of students now support animal testing.

Some are going even further. An organisation called Pro-Test was set up a week or so ago by a 16-year-old boy who has already garnered a lot of public support. Via a popular website — Oxfordgossip.co.uk — he has managed to reach many students and found that we are really supportive.

Too many of us have had our studies disrupted by protesters who think that anyone connected with the university is inherently evil. Only the other day friends told me that a library was closed early because of all the noise that animal rights’ campaigners were making outside.

None of it makes sense because if the activists really want to stop the labs they need to gain the support of the student body: the best vehicle for attracting the attention of the university officials.

Instead I, and many others, will be joining Pro-Test’s first rally on February 25. All the bullying tactics have achieved is forcing us to take a good look at what animal testing actually achieves.

As I live and work in a seat of learning, I’m predisposed to support animal testing. Actually it’s just common sense. Without animal testing we wouldn’t have penicillin, small pox vaccinations, pacemakers, heart valves, and we’d be nowhere in the fight against cancer and Parkinson’s. The idea that vivisectionists enjoy torturing animals is ridiculous. The thrill for them is not killing an animal, it’s the possibility of progress.

The fact that the people who disagree with me prefer sensationalism to reasoned debate is tempting many Oxford students down a traditionally un-PC path. Being part of Pro-Test won’t only mean you support the necessary evil of experimenting on animals, it strikes a blow for a grown-up conversation about this important topic.

Ultimately, violence and threats will lead to the downfall of the animal rights activists’ cause. Will Pro-Test capture the student imagination? I think it will. And I hope that others will look at www.Pro-Test.org.uk and come and join us in standing up to the bullies.