House raided in animal rights extremism probe (From Evesham Journal)

House raided in animal rights extremism probe

1:46pm Thursday 3rd May 2007 in News

TEN police officers carried out a dawn raid on a house in Evesham on Tuesday as part of an international investigation into animal rights extremism.

Lynn Sawyer and Mike Haines were in the house in Boat Lane at the time when officers climbed through an open window at about 5.20am.

Mr Haines said: "I am just a lodger here but I was searched. They made a thorough search of the whole house and took pictures. I wasn't distressed because this is a common occurrence, just because you stand up for the rights of humans and animals."

Police left just before 7am, taking some property with them but no one was arrested.

In all, 32 properties were raided by 700 police officers in a campaign stretching from the UK to Belgium and the Netherlands and a total of 32 people were arrested. Police said the raids were the culmination of a two-year investigation into an alleged conspiracy to commit acts of extremism against animal research groups and individuals.

Assistant chief constable Adrian Leppard of Kent Police said: "To some animal rights extremists any organisations and individuals who have links to the animal research industry are justifiable targets, however tenuous those links might be.

"The victims of animal rights extremism are not only companies or universities. It is employees, along with their families, their friends and neighbours who are often targeted in their own homes."