Greg Avery
Encyclopedia
Greg Avery 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), an animal-testing company based in the UK and US. The Guardian describes Avery as the "de facto
leader" of SHAC.
Avery is currently serving a nine year jail sentence after his 2008 conviction on charges of conspiracy to blackmail
in connection with the SHAC campaign. Avery and six other activists convicted with him, including his second wife Natasha Dellemagne and his first wife Heather Nicholson
, are alleged by police to be key figures within the Animal Liberation Front
.
in Derbyshire
, one of six brothers. Like his mother, he trained as a tailor. 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 Nicholson (formerly Heather James) was active with Avery in founding a number of prominent animal rights campaigns. Avery, Dellemagne (now known as Natasha Avery) and Nicholson remain friends and continue to work together within the movement. In 2004 the three were reported to be living together in a cottage provided by a wealthy supporter, Virginia Jane Steele.
campaign, Save the Hill Grove Cats
, and most recently SHAC. He is also a vocal supporter of the SPEAK
campaign, which failed to stop the construction by Oxford University of a new animal testing laboratory on South Parks Road, Oxford.
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. Footage shot in the UK showed HLS staff shouting at, shaking, punching, and laughing at the animals. Footage shot later in the U.S. appears to show a live monkey being dissected.
Until their 2008 arrests, the "senior members" of SHAC, including Avery, co-ordinated the campaign from a cottage in Little Moorcote, near Hook, Hampshire. Nicholson and the Averys published reports on the SHAC website and by mail, and provided press information and interviews. The website and mailing list serve as a platform for supporters. The senior members would meet every three months to discuss their campaign, compile reports and receive updates from colleagues in the United States and Europe.
Action reports published on the website and mailed out to subscribers would contain details of potential targets and describe protests. According to Greg Avery, "[t]hey've made their beds and now it's time to lie in them, and they're all whining.". Meanwhile, The Times writes, Avery and the core group would privately compile encrypted reports detailing both the legal protests and an "illegal blackmail campaign." The former would be attributed to SHAC, while the latter claimed under the banner of the Animal Liberation Front
or Animal Rights Militia
. The Guardian writes that the group "targeted thousands of individuals and hundreds of companies in attacks designed to shut down HLS"
, and 14 days later that year for offences under the Public Order Act.
In 2002, Avery, Heather Nicholson, and Natasha Dellemagne were jailed for 12 months, six suspended, for conspiracy
to incite a public nuisance. In July 2006, Dellemagne and Nicholson 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.
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.
He was also served with an indefinite ASBO
, restricting his future contact with companies targeted in the campaign.
Animal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
activist. He is chiefly known as a founding member of several influential animal rights campaigns — focusing on opposition to the animal testing
Animal testing
Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and in vivo testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments. Worldwide it is estimated that the number of vertebrate animals—from zebrafish to non-human primates—ranges from the tens of millions to more than 100 million...
industry — that have dramatically altered the nature of the animal rights movement in the UK. His latest involvement is with Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty is an international animal rights campaign to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences , Europe's largest contract animal-testing laboratory. HLS tests medical and non-medical substances on around 75,000 animals every year, from rats to primates...
(SHAC), an international campaign to force the closure of Huntingdon Life Sciences
Huntingdon Life Sciences
Huntingdon Life Sciences is a contract animal-testing company founded in 1952 in England, with facilities in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire; Eye, Suffolk; New Jersey in the U.S., and Japan...
(HLS), an animal-testing company based in the UK and US. The Guardian describes Avery as the "de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
leader" of SHAC.
Avery is currently serving a nine year jail sentence after his 2008 conviction on charges of conspiracy to blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
in connection with the SHAC campaign. Avery and six other activists convicted with him, including his second wife Natasha Dellemagne and his first wife Heather Nicholson
Heather Nicholson
Heather Nicholson , also known as Heather James, is a British animal rights activist. She is best known for having co-founded three pivotal animal rights campaigns in the UK in the 1990s. In 1997, Consort Kennels in Hereford, which bred beagles for animal-testing labs, was closed after a ten-month...
, are alleged by police to be key figures within the Animal Liberation Front
Animal Liberation Front
The Animal Liberation Front is an international, underground leaderless resistance that engages in illegal direct action in pursuit of animal liberation...
.
Personal life
Avery was born and raised near BuxtonBuxton
Buxton is a spa town in Derbyshire, England. It has the highest elevation of any market town in England. Located close to the county boundary with Cheshire to the west and Staffordshire to the south, Buxton is described as "the gateway to the Peak District National Park"...
in Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
, one of six brothers. Like his mother, he trained as a tailor. 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 Nicholson (formerly Heather James) was active with Avery in founding a number of prominent animal rights campaigns. Avery, Dellemagne (now known as Natasha Avery) and Nicholson remain friends and continue to work together within the movement. In 2004 the three were reported to be living together in a cottage provided by a wealthy supporter, Virginia Jane Steele.
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 beagleConsort beagles
The Consort beagles campaign was founded in 1996 by British animal rights activists Greg Avery and Heather James, with a view to closing Consort Kennels in Hereford, a commercial breeder of beagles for animal testing laboratories.-Background:...
campaign, Save the Hill Grove Cats
Save the Hill Grove Cats
Save the Hill Grove Cats was a British animal rights campaign set up in 1997 with the aim of closing Hill Grove Farm near Witney in Oxfordshire. The farm, owned by Christopher Brown, was the last commercial breeder of cats for laboratories in the United Kingdom...
, and most recently SHAC. He is also a vocal supporter of the SPEAK
SPEAK (animals)
SPEAK, the Voice for the Animals is a British animal rights campaign founded in 2003 that aims to end animal experimentation in the UK. It has to date fought against two projects. The first was a proposed non-human primate research facility at the University of Cambridge, which was abandoned in...
campaign, which failed to stop the construction by Oxford University of a new animal testing laboratory on South Parks Road, Oxford.
SHAC campaign
Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty is an international animal rights campaign to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences , Europe's largest contract animal-testing laboratory. HLS tests medical and non-medical substances on around 75,000 animals every year, from rats to primates...
in November 1999 after video footage shot covertly inside HLS by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is an American animal rights organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. A non-profit corporation with 300 employees and two million members and supporters, it claims to be the largest animal rights...
was aired on British television. Footage shot in the UK showed HLS staff shouting at, shaking, punching, and laughing at the animals. Footage shot later in the U.S. appears to show a live monkey being dissected.
Until their 2008 arrests, the "senior members" of SHAC, including Avery, co-ordinated the campaign from a cottage in Little Moorcote, near Hook, Hampshire. Nicholson and the Averys published reports on the SHAC website and by mail, and provided press information and interviews. The website and mailing list serve as a platform for supporters. The senior members would meet every three months to discuss their campaign, compile reports and receive updates from colleagues in the United States and Europe.
Action reports published on the website and mailed out to subscribers would contain details of potential targets and describe protests. According to Greg Avery, "[t]hey've made their beds and now it's time to lie in them, and they're all whining.". Meanwhile, The Times writes, Avery and the core group would privately compile encrypted reports detailing both the legal protests and an "illegal blackmail campaign." The former would be attributed to SHAC, while the latter claimed under the banner of the Animal Liberation Front
Animal Liberation Front
The Animal Liberation Front is an international, underground leaderless resistance that engages in illegal direct action in pursuit of animal liberation...
or Animal Rights Militia
Animal Rights Militia
The Animal Rights Militia is a banner used by animal rights activists who engage in direct action that ignores the Animal Liberation Front's policy of taking all necessary precautions to avoid harm to human and non-human life.-History:...
. The Guardian writes that the group "targeted thousands of individuals and hundreds of companies in attacks designed to shut down HLS"
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 affrayAffray
In many legal jurisdictions related to English common law, affray is a public order offence consisting of the fighting of two or more persons in a public place to the terror of ordinary people...
, and 14 days later that year for offences under the Public Order Act.
In 2002, Avery, Heather Nicholson, and Natasha Dellemagne were jailed for 12 months, six suspended, for conspiracy
Conspiracy (crime)
In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement...
to incite a public nuisance. In July 2006, Dellemagne and Nicholson 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
Countryside Alliance
The Countryside Alliance is a British organisation promoting issues relating to the countryside such as country sports, including hunting, shooting and angling...
sticker.
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.
He was also served with an indefinite ASBO
Åsbo
Åsbo can refer to:*Åsbo Northern Hundred, a hundred in Scania*Åsbo Southern Hundred, a hundred in Scania...
, restricting his future contact with companies targeted in the campaign.
Further reading
- Vaughan, Claudette. "SHAC Interviewed: Greg Avery Speaks Out", Abolitionist.Online, undated, retrieved February 26, 2006
- Vegan Prisoners Support Group (VPSG)
- SHAC UK Prisoner Support