关键词： 实验动物
由英国动物权益保护组织中激进分子组织的为期六年的运动使一家从事为临床测试养殖豚鼠的公司被迫关闭。 David Hall & Partners宣称，他们将返回到“传统农业”。一位 Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry 的发言人说，这种运动“给予从事合法业务的人们难以忍受的压力”。
Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- David Hall & Partners, a family- owned U.K. company that raises guinea pigs used for clinical testing, will shut its operations after a six-year campaign by opponents of animal experimentation that the family says included the desecration of a relative's grave.
The Hall family plans to return to ``traditional farming'' at the end of the year, the Newchurch, England-based company said today in an e-mailed statement released by local police.
The family hopes the decision will lead to the return of the body of Gladys Hammond, the mother-in-law of one of the Halls, which was stolen from its grave in October.
The announcement of the closure comes two months after Phytopharm Plc, a U.K. biotechnology company, lost its broker, Canaccord Capital Inc., after anti-animal-testing protesters firebombed a Canaccord executive's car. Groups including Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs, the Animal Liberation Front and Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty have targeted companies including Huntingdon Life Sciences Group Plc, which tests products on animals, to stop such testing.
An unidentified spokesman for Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs said in a recorded message that the Halls' announcement was ``fantastic news.'' The group is now concerned whether the guinea pigs are ``released to caring homes or whether they will be sent to labs.''
`Impossible Pressure'
``The activities of a few animal-rights extremists have placed impossible pressure on those going about their legitimate business,'' said Philip Wright, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry's science and technology director, in an e-mailed statement. ``While animal-rights extremists are likely to be only one factor in the final decision, it does underline the need for greater protection of those targeted.''
Staffordshire police said they have responded to more than 460 incidents at the Halls' Darley Oaks Farm, located about 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Birmingham, since January 2003. The incidents ranged from the use of ``pyrotechnic devises to threatening mail and damage to vehicles and property.''
The police are continuing to investigate the desecration of Hammond's grave, they said in a statement. The woman was the mother-in-law of Christopher Hall, who is involved in the guinea- pig business. She was not involved in the business herself.
Drugmakers including Novartis AG, Switzerland's biggest, have urged the U.K. government to protect workers, following attacks on animal-testing facilities. These companies are spending less on research in the U.K. and the trend may continue because of attacks of animal-rights activists, a trade association said in April.
Huntingdon's Move
Huntingdon, which has facilities near Cambridge, England, and in East Millstone, New Jersey, moved its headquarters to the U.S. in 2001 after managing director Brian Cass was attacked with a baseball bat outside his home.
Phytopharm was developing an experimental Alzheimer's treatment with Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co. before the Japanese company decided not to continue development in March.
The U.K. is strengthening laws against animal-rights protesters, adding two new offenses -- one of breaking laws with the intention of threatening or interfering with contracts involving an animal research organization and another making it illegal to threaten someone because they're associated with animal research.
The new laws make it an offense to protest outside someone's home in a way that causes alarm or distress, changes harassment rules to cover companies and gives the police more powers to move protesters.
来源：http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000082&sid=aypHYwNvW8_U&refer=canada
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