HUNDREDS of animal rights activists at a training camp in the Kent countryside were taught how to kill as extremists urged them to break the law.

Members of the Animal Liberation Front mixed with pensioners and zealous students at the first International Animal Rights conference to be held in Britain.

Despite pledges from the organisers that they were there only to exchange ideas and discuss tactics, activists were schooled in eye-gouging and how to deliver fatal jabs.

While visitors to the four-day camp were schooled in “self-defence”, extremists urged supporters to increase the number of attacks on staff of companies linked with vivisection.

At a farm in East Peckham, five miles from Tonbridge, two demonstrators told hunt saboteurs and anti-vivisectionists to “deliver short punches to key areas”. They were encouraged to aim for the eyes, the nose, the neck and the kidneys.

Speaking to a group of men and women of all ages, including a young woman with the word “terrorist” daubed in red ink across her forehead, a woman instructor urged: “Start with the head. You can punch the eyes, you can eye-gouge. To damage the optic nerves push (your fingers) into the eyes and press down.

“If you are in serious s**t and think you will get the hell beaten out of you, that is the technique that you are perfectly capable of using. You can also aim at the pressure points around them and by jabbing it can kill them. Alternatively punch or kick them in the kidneys.”

Greg Avery, spokesman for International Animal Rights 2004 and Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, said activists were entitled to defend themselves against “animal abusers”.

He said: “People are justified in using self-defence. I have been assaulted myself. It is about having the confidence to know that you can get out of these situations. These are potentially fatal techniques that are being taught but it is purely selfdefence and they have a right to know how to protect themselves.”

While Mr Avery insisted that the gathering was part of a peaceful legal campaign to end animal suffering, other activists openly advocated breaking the law.

Wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan “No Excuse for Animal Abuse”, Keith Mann said the press was more interested in reporting the broken windows of drug company executives than exposing worldwide animal hardship.

Mr Mann, who has served a seven-year sentence for firebombing a battery farm and is now a spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front, said: “We have to break the law. Legitimate protesting has been criminalised in this country.”

After reports that animal rights activists have vowed to mount at least ten terror assaults a night across Britain, he espoused more attacks on the staff of companies and suppliers involved in vivisection.

“If there were 20 attacks a day, that would be better,” Mr Mann said. “If there were 50 attacks that would be even better and the sooner vivisection will be brought to an end.”

Campaigners claim that ministers have made it impossible for them to work towards their goals in a legitimate way.

In an effort to clamp down on hardline animal rightsorganisations, the Government recently granted the police and courts powers to challenge protests outside the homes of those connected to animal experimentation.

A spokeswoman for the Home Office claimed that the Government had no problem with protesters who campaigned lawfully and peacefully and is interested only in extremist groups that harass and intimidate their targets. “The Government is determined to tackle animal rights extremists,” she said. “We have made clear that it is wholly unacceptable that some minority groups attempt to stop individuals and companies from going about their legitimate business.”

The 400 people camping out in fields next to tents used for different workshops, including “hunt sabbing” and “mock police interviews”, had to watch a speech from their special guest via a video link after David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, banned him from attending the meeting. Dr Jerry Vlasak, the American trauma surgeon and a former animal researcher, was prevented from talking to delegates in person after he defended the murder of scientists.

But as they sweltered in tents filled with straw bales for seating, activists seemed determined to wage their war against animal abuse. Steve Chandler, 58, told the assembled group that he first became involved in animal rights work as a hunt saboteur in the 1970s.

“I will carry on campaigning for as long as I live,” he said.

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