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Animal rights group reveals university lab builders' secret address
By Rosie Murray-West
(Filed: 31/05/2006) Animal
rights protesters have discovered the secret location of builders
working on the construction of a new Oxford University laboratory, it
was claimed last night. Speak, a group that says
it uses only legal means to protest against vivisection, will
demonstrate outside the men's quarters in a Cotswolds village on
Saturday. | |  | Morrissey: 'We'll get you'
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"The
plans by the university to keep secret the workers' location has been
foiled," it said. "Once again we have the university on the run; now is
the time to press home our advantage." Robert
Cogswell, who heads Speak, said it would not be breaching an injunction
the university had taken out against protesters last week because it
would stay 100 yards from residential blocks. But as it posted the address on a website, the quarters could become the target of violent protests. The
£20 million laboratory is being built in South Parks Road and will
house some animals for research. The violent Animal Liberation Front
has said it should be the focus for all activism. Construction
is carried out behind high hoardings and the builders wear balaclavas.
To try to hide where the builders are staying, the injunction forbids
anyone from following vehicles ferrying contractors to the site. Thames
Valley police said they were happy with the security arrangements for
the Speak protest and a simultaneous Oxford march of the
pro-vivisection group Pro-Test. It emerged
yesterday that the singer Morrissey, a passionate anti-vivisectionist,
had warned workers at the laboratory site: "We'll get you." During
a concert at the New Theatre, Oxford, on Thursday he branded the
university "the shame of England" for allowing the laboratory to go
ahead. In an interview with the fanzine True to
You this year, he said he supported "the efforts of the animal rights
militia". He added that he understood "why fur-farmers and so-called
laboratory scientists are repaid with violence - it is because they
deal in violence themselves and it is the only language they
understand". Thames Valley police said they were
not investigating the singer's comments because there was "no
reasonable prospect of getting anything out of it in terms of a
conviction". An Oxford University spokesman said the singer had a right to express his opinions "within the law". But
she added: "We would be concerned if individuals were actively
encouraging direct intimidation or action against anyone involved in
legitimate scientific research or other lawful activities connected
with the university." Publishers wishing to reproduce photographs on this page should phone 44 (0) 207 538 7505 or e-mail syndication@telegraph.co.uk
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