UK animal rights activist jailed for threats
Date: 22-Aug-02
Country: UK
Robert Moaby was handed one of the longest ever prison sentences for an animal rights activist for making the threats to North American financial institutions in a bid to drive Huntingdon out of business, police said.
The move comes as animal rights protesters on both sides of the Atlantic move from chants and banners to more direct and occasionally violent action to stop companies using animals to test products ranging from drugs to food additives.
Moaby, 33, threatened to kill senior executives of the Bank of New York and Toronto's AIM Fund Management as part of a campaign that has forced Huntingdon to relocate from England to the United States, police said.
Moaby was arrested last year after the FBI traced emails sent to U.S. firms.
British police said they seized Moaby's computer in June 2001 and found the threatening emails together with over 2,800 images of child pornography.
Moaby, from London's King's Cross area, pleaded guilty at the city's Southwark Crown Court to threats to kill and counts of making indecent photographs.
Police said Moaby was a supporter of animal rights group Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC). Police said there was no evidence SHAC was behind the death threats.
The group heads a campaign which has come close to driving Huntingdon out of business as clients and banks have abandoned the UK's leading contract research firm after threats to their staff.
Actions against Huntingdon, which has around 70,000 animals, escalated in 2001 when Managing Director Brian Cass was beaten with a baseball bat.
"SHAC condemns people who abuse children as well as people who abuse animals," SHAC said in a statement following Moaby's sentencing. "As far as we are concerned they should be locked in jail and the key thrown away."
Huntingdon officials were not available for comment.