A BELEAGUERED family, who have suffered a six-year hate campaign by militant animal rights activists including the theft of a relative's remains, today put a halt to breeding guinea pigs at their farm.
David Hall and Partners said it would shut down its guinea pig breeding operations at Darley Oaks Farm in Newchurch, Staffordshire, at the end of the year.
The Hall family have chosen to make the decision after a six-year hate campaign by extremists culminating in the body of family member Gladys Hammond being stolen from her grave.
In a statement released through a spokeswoman the Hall family said: "David Hall and Partners' involvement in breeding guinea pigs for biomedical research will cease at the end of 2005.
"The business, which has operated for over three decades, will undergo a phased closure until then to ensure the welfare of animals involved.
"The business has continued during a sustained protest from animal rights extremists for six years, which included the desecration of the grave of Gladys Hammond last October."
The family hoped the decision would prompt grave robbers to return the body of 82-year-old whose remains were stolen from a churchyard in nearby Yoxall, last October.
"We now hope that, as a result of this announcement, those responsible for removing Gladys' body will return her so she can lie once again in her rightful resting place," the statement added.
"David Hall and Partners are planning a return to traditional farming. They have no plans to be involved in any way in the breeding of animals for medical or scientific research."
Mrs Hammond's son-in-law Christopher Hall co-owns Darley Oaks Farm with his brother John.
The decision followed a sustained campaign of intimidation which included regular protests at the gates, firebomb attacks, a paedophile smear campaign and the cutting of electricity and phone lines.
