Greg Avery

Greg Avery (born 1963) is a British animal rights activist. He is chiefly known as a founding member of several influential animal rights campaigns — focusing on opposition to the animal testing industry — that have dramatically altered the nature of the animal rights movement in the UK.

His latest involvement is with Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), an international campaign to force the closure of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), a controversial animal-testing company based in the UK and U.S.

Personal life

Was born and raised near Buxton in Derbyshire, one of six brothers.Boggan, Steve. [http://education.guardian.co.uk/businessofresearch/story/0,,1787455,00.html Money talks] "The Guardian", June 1, 2006.] Like his mother, he trained as a tailor.Cook, John. [http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2006/02/07/thugs_puppies/index_np.html Thugs for Puppies] "The Salon", John Cook, retrieved October 1, 2006.] He joined the animal rights movement at the age of 15, and has devoted himself to it full-time ever since.Avery has been married to Natasha Constance Dellemagne, also an animal rights activist, since 2002. His first wife, Heather James, now Nicholson, was active with Avery in founding a number of prominent animal rights campaigns. Avery, Dellemagne (now known as Natasha Avery) and James remain friends and continue to work together within the movement. As of 2004, the three were reported to be living together in a cottage provided by a wealthy supporter, Virginia Jane Steele.Goodwin, Jo-Ann. "The Animals of Hatred", "The Daily Mail", October 15, 2003.] Doward, Jamie. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/animalrights/story/0,11917,1189921,00.html Sex and violence allegations split animal rights campaign] , "The Guardian", April 11, 2004.]

Activism

Avery has been a founding member of some of the most prominent and successful animal rights groups and campaigns in the UK. These include the Northern Animal Liberation League, the Consort beagle campaign, [ [http://www.jillphipps.org.uk/covAA.htm Consort beagles closes] , "Coventry Animal Alliance", July 1997.] Save the Hill Grove Cats,Mann, Keith. "From Dusk 'til Dawn: An insider's view of the growth of the Animal Liberation Movement". Puppy Pincher Press, 2007, p. 536.] and most recently SHAC.Alleyne, Richard. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/01/19/ncam119.xml "Terror tactics that brought a company to its knees"] , "The Daily Telegraph", January 19, 2001.] He is also a vocal supporter of the SPEAK campaign, which aims to stop the construction by Oxford University of a new animal testing laboratory on South Parks Road, Oxford.

HAC campaign

[
HLS during PETA's investigation.] Avery and Heather Nicholson started SHAC in November 1999 after video footage shot covertly inside HLS by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals was aired on British television.Doward, Jamie and Townsend, Mark. [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1273697,00.html "Beauty and The Beasts"] , "The Observer", August 1, 2004.] Footage shot in the UK showed HLS staff shouting at, shaking, punching, and laughing at the animals. [http://www.huntingdonsucks.com/gallery/InsideHLS.mpg Inside HLS video] ] Footage shot later in the U.S. appears to show a live monkey being dissected. [http://www.huntingdonsucks.com/gallery/scared_monkey.mov Live monkey video] ]

Nicholson and the Averys publish reports on the SHAC website and by mail, and provide press information and interviews. The website and mailing list serve as a platform for supporters. Action reports are published on the website and mailed out to subscribers, and may contain details of potential targets and lists of the companies that have severed links with HLS. According to Greg Avery, " [t] hey've made their beds and now it's time to lie in them, and they're all whining." [ [http://www.lawson-cruttenden.co.uk/articles/076_160804thelawyer.pdf "Red in Tooth and Law"] .] The information disseminated and shared between activists allows SHAC groups throughout the UK and North America to act autonomously. SHAC maintains a decentralized leaderless resistance approach with no central leadership. The campaign has had many effects on HLS, such as shareholders selling back their shares, while campaigners have been accused of being associated with the Animal Liberation Front (ALF).Doward, Jamie and Townsend, Mark [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1273697,00.html Beauty and the beasts] , "The Observer", August 1, 2004.]

Arrests and convictions

In 1996, Avery spent 18 months on remand after police found incendiary devices in the house where he was staying with another activist. He was later acquitted. He was sentenced in 1998 to six months for affray, and 14 days later that year for offences under the Public Order Act.

In 2002, Avery, Heather James, and Natasha Dellemagne were jailed for 12 months, six suspended, for conspiracy to incite a public nuisance. In July 2006, Dellemagne and James were sentenced to 16 months in jail, along with 19-year old Daniel Wadham, who was sentenced to 12 months in detention, for an attack on a car displaying a Countryside Alliance sticker. The three were convicted of verbally abusing and spitting on the occupants, a 75-year-old woman, a woman in her 40s, and a 21-year old man. [http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=IG2527481A&news_headline=animal_rights_trio_jailed_for_grandma_attack Animal Rights Trio Jailes For Grandma Attack] Life Style Extra, 25 July, 2006]

On May 1, 2007, after a series of raids involving 700 police officers in England, Amsterdam, and Belgium, 32 people linked to SHAC were arrested, including Avery and Dellemagne, who were charged with conspiracy to blackmail in connection with the SHAC campaign. [ [http://www.netcu.org.uk/media/article.jsp?id=249 "Animal rights extremism - police arrest 32 people"] , National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit press release, May 1, 2007.] [ [http://www.netcu.org.uk/media/article.jsp?id=255 "Operation Achilles - twelfth person charged"] , National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit.] [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/animalrights/story/0,,2070273,00.html "Animal rights activists involved in bid to shut lab among 30 arrested in raids"] , May 2, 2007.]

On July 30, 2008, at Winchester Crown Court, Avery, his wife Natasha Dellemagne, and co-accused Daniel Amos pleaded guilty to conspiracy to blackmail. Avery's first wife, Heather Nicholson, pleaded not guilty. In October 2008, during Nicholson's trial, the court heard that Avery and seven other defendants carried out acts of aggression, and made threats of violence, on behalf of SHAC but in the name of the Animal Liberation Front or Animal Rights Militia. [Laville, Sandra. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/oct/07/animalwelfare.activists Animal activists in international plot, jury told] , "The Guardian", October 7, 2008.]

ee also

*Animal Liberation Front
*Veganism

Notes

Further reading

*Vaughan, Claudette. [http://www.abolitionist-online.com/interview_shac-interviewed.shtml "SHAC Interviewed: Greg Avery Speaks Out"] , "Abolitionist.Online", undated, retrieved February 26, 2006
* [http://www.vpsg.info Vegan Prisoners Support Group] (VPSG)
* [http://www.myspace.com/shacukprisonersupport SHAC UK Prisoner Support]

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