Animal rights protesters who attacked a home linked to a guinea pig breeding centre have been dubbed "terrorists" by a Midland MP.
Michael Fabricant (Con Lichfield) called on the security services to deal with threats such as activists who have targeted David Hall & Partners, which breeds the animals for medical research, at Newchurch, near Lichfield, Staffordshire.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Fabricant said: One of my constituents runs a guinea pig farm for medical research which is controlled by the Home Office to protect the animals and to ensure the guinea pigs are bred and kept humanely.
He has written to me saying: Before New Years Eve, the activists smashed all the downstairs windows of my 86-year-old fathers home whilst he was in the house, and then threw red paint bombs through the smashed windows.
He was petrified. Between Christmas and New Year they were also at my nieces house . . . and they turned off all her water and then concreted the stop cock so she could not get it back on.
Mr Fabricant told the Commons: Those animal rights terrorists must be controlled, so may we have a debate on the issue?
Perhaps the Home Secretary could designate those people as terrorists, so that organisations for which I have the greatest respect, such as the security service, can be utilised to try to restrain their activities.
Cabinet Minister Peter Hain, the Leader of the Commons, told him: Many of us have a lot of sympathy with animal rights movements and support them. We want proper protection for animals and an end to cruelty, but to take things to such an extent and to terrorise scientists, doctors and others involved is wholly unacceptable.
Last night Mr Fabricant said: The irony is that if this particular guinea pig farm is closed, laboratories will import these guinea pigs from France where there are no inspections whatsoever to ensure that they are protected against cruelty.
I oppose the testing on animals for cosmetics and other nonmedical experiments.
I just wonder about the hypocrisy of those animal rights terrorists who persecute my constituents yet have been vaccinated against polio and other diseases when this is a product of animal research.
