THE homes of three employees of the Suffolk laboratories of drug testing firm Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) have been targeted by animal rights extremists, it has been disclosed.

By David Green

THE homes of three employees of the Suffolk laboratories of drug testing firm Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) have been targeted by animal rights extremists, it has been disclosed.

In a series of incidents the staff, who work at Occold, near Eye, have had their car tyres slashed, red paint poured over the vehicles and have received letters and telephone calls threatening violence.

HLS last week obtained a High Court injunction preventing animal rights protestors from targeting the homes of HLS employees.

One group, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), which is dedicated to forcing the closure of HLS, has listed employees addresses on its internet website.

The injunction obtained last week also banned protestors from demonstrations outside employees homes and within half a mile of the firm's laboratories.

However, despite the legal move, demonstrators did turn up outside the company's premises over the Easter weekend.

Five people stood outside the Occold laboratories and refused to abandon their peaceful protest despite being served with the injunction by security staff.

Seventeen protestors turned up at the Huntingdon laboratories but they all departed after being served with the injunction and being warned by police that they would be arrested unless they dispersed.

In Cambridge about 1,000 demonstrators marched through the city centre on Saturday to mark World Day for Laboratory Animals.

Heather James, SHAC spokesperson, said: "We regard Cambridge as the capital city of vivisection and animal cruelty. Some of the nastiest experiments in the world are conducted in the university laboratories."

Ms James said SHAC had not organised the demonstrations at the HLS laboratories over the Easter weekend.

"People take it upon themselves to do these things and good luck to them," she added.

Ms James said the next High Court hearing was scheduled for May 14 and SHAC would be attempting to get the injunction lifted.

"We regard it as a compliment to the effectiveness of our campaign that they are having to seek help from the courts," she added.

An HLS spokesman confirmed that the homes of three Occold employees had been targeted by extremists over a period of some months. Threatening letters and telephone calls had also been made to the private addresses.

Tyres had been slashed and both red paint and paint stripper used.

"There has been some very unpleasant behaviour," the spokesman added.