UK guinea pig farm to close after owner's family grave robbed

There are no reviewed versions of this page, so it may not have been checked for adherence to standards.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

A forty-year-old British guinea pig farm is to close after a six-year campaign of intimidation by animal rights extremists culminated in the remains of the family's dead mother being dug up and stolen.

noicon

This audio file was created from the text revision dated 2005-08-23 and may not reflect subsequent text edits to this report. (audio help)

Audio Wikinews

Glady Hammond's sons, who run the farm which breeds the guinea pigs for medical experiments, have been the victim of bomb threats, hate mail, malicious phone calls, an attempt to brand them as pedophiles, and arson attacks.

However last year's exhumation of their mother was the final straw. The remains of the 87-year-old, who died in 1997, were removed under the cover of darkness from the churchyard they were buried in, and have not been found.

Two men were arrested in connection with the grave robbery, but were later released without charge.

The family hopes that their announcement that the farm will close will lead to the return of their mother's remains.

A close relative of Mrs Hammond, who spoke anonymously to the BBC, said, "Gladys was a relative of the Halls by marriage only and had no involvement in guinea pig breeding. She was a kind, gentle country lady who loved animals."

Legal peaceful protesters were overjoyed at the news. Johnny Holmes, a spokesman for Stop the Newchurch Guinea Pigs, said: "This is the most fantastic day of my life." The group, which has picketted the farm for several years, says it will remain until all the guinea pigs have gone.

The group's website describes the experiments the guinea pigs were subjected to as being "horrendous", and have accused the farm of keeping tens of thousands of animals in poor conditions leading to many dying of malnutrition and neurosis. Video footage taken by the group inside the farm show many young animals dying and under extreme stress.[1]

They also say the animals have been used for cosmetics research and for "unscientific" medical experiments.

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), in an online statement, gave their best wishes to the Hammond family, and described the decision as "regrettable but understandable".[2]

Their director of Science and Technology said, "Guinea pigs have provided essential information to support biomedical research into respiratory disease resulting in real breakthroughs in the development of new medicines."

The animals from the farm have been used in biomedical research, especially for respiratory diseases such as asthma. The ABPI also said that future animal research may be carried out in countries that do not have the strict welfare controls the UK has.

Sources

"Targeted guinea pig farm closes" — BBC News, August 23, 2005

"CLOSURE OF DARLEY OAKS GUINEA PIGS FARM - STATEMENT FROM THE ASSOCIATION OF THE BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY" — APBI, August 23, 2005

"Liberation Now" — Save The Newchurch Guinea Pigs, August 23, 2005

"'Desecration' farm to close" — ITN, August 23, 2005

"animal liberation postings" — IMC, August 23, 2005

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article has been released into the public domain. In the event that this is not legally possible, this article may be used for any purpose, without any condition, unless such conditions are required by law. This applies worldwide. Copyright terms on images, however, may vary, so please check individual image pages prior to duplication.