Animal Rights Militia Victories
Victories for the Animal Rights Militia in North America began in the 1980's with two successful destructions in San Jose, California. On September 1, 1987 a paper products warehouse at San Jose Valley Veal Inc. was burned down causing $100,000 damage. Two months later on November 26, 1987 a barn containing hay and grain belonging to the Ferrara Meat Company was destroyed causing $230,000 damage.
One of the most famous ARM actions was carried out in England in 1984. The target of the action was the Mars Company that was performing horrific tooth decay experiments on animals which it refused to stop. ARM activists claimed to the media that Mars Bars chocolate bars had been poisoned. This caused the company to withdraw the bars resulting in huge financial costs and losses for the company. Although ARM later admitted the poisoning was a hoax the Mars Company recognized the potential for further costly actions and withdrew from animal experimentation.
The Animal Rights Militia undertook a similar action in Canada on January 2, 1992 against the company that produces "Cold Buster" candy bars. Larry Wang, a vivisector at the University of Alberta conducted sixteen years of animal research to develop the bar was also a part owner of the company that manufactures the bars. The animal experimentation involved in the development of Cold Buster included rats being frozen, starved and injected with drugs including barbiturates.
ARM claimed that 87 Cold Buster bars had been poisoned with oven cleaner and returned to the store shelves. Communiques and samples of contaminated bars were sent to the media resulting in enormous economic damage to the company. It was estimated that the cost to the company of just recalling the candy was over $1 million. Two weeks later ARM revealed that the poisoning was a hoax. In addition to causing huge financial losses to the company the action caused the Canadian Department of Defense to discontinue funding Wang's research.
ARM conducted another poisoning hoax on December 23, 2004 in Vancouver, British Columbia. In this hoax ARM claimed to have injected turkeys with rat poison and randomly placing them in various Safeway and Save On Foods stores in he Vancouver area. Samples were sent to the media, however, when they were tested by police it was determined that the samples had not been contaminated. As a result of this action an estimated $1 million worth of turkeys were removed from store shelves. The stores selling the turkeys and the turkey producers co-op also lost millions of dollars.
Other actions by the Animal Rights Militia included the sending of letter bombs to then- Prime Minister of England Margaret Thatcher and threatening to assassinate individuals involved in vivisection.
Gladys Hammond
The most successful recent action by ARM was the removal from a grave of the body of the mother-in-law of Christopher Hall, part owner of Darley Oakes Farm which bred guinea pigs for Huntingdon Life Sciences. Gladys Hammond's body was removed in October 2004 from a a churchyard in Yoxall, Staffordshire and found buried in woodland on May 2, 2006. As a result of this action the farm ended the breeding of guinea pigs for research.
4 ARM activists, Jon Abelwhite, John Smith, Kerry Whitburn and Josephine Mayo were, unfortunately, arrested and convicted in this action. They are now serving sentences of between 4 and 12 years. Because of their dedication and sacrifice the lives of countless animals have been spared.
The gravesite where Gladys Hammond's body was removed from. How many more times will this scene have to be repeated before those who torture and exploit animals stop their despicable actions?