Barry Horne

Barry Horne was a British animal rights activist who died of kidney failure in Ronkswood Hospital, Worcester on November 5, 2001, following a series of four hunger strikes while serving an 18-year sentence for planting incendiary devices. Horne said his aim was to persuade the British government to hold a public inquiry into animal-testing practices in the UK, something the Labour Party had promised to do when it came to power in 1997.

At the time of his death at the age of 49, Horne had not eaten for 15 days, but had already been weakened by previous hunger strikes, the longest of which had lasted 68 days and had left him partially blind with kidney damage. At Horne's funeral, animal rights activists, many of whom regarded Horne as a hero, unveiled a banner with the words: "Labour lied, Barry died".

The media reaction to his campaign and death was hostile. Although it was acknowledged at his trial that he had not set out to kill or injure anyone, but to destroy property, Horne was regarded by many as a terrorist, with The Guardian writing: "In life he was a nobody, a failed dustman turned firebomber. But in death Barry Horne will rise up as the first true martyr of the most successful terrorist group Britain has ever known, the animal rights movement." [2] (http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2001/11/15645.html)

Background

A former refuse collector from Liverpool, and divorced with a young child, Horne began what newspapers called a fire-bombing campaign in the early 1990s, causing damage estimated at £3 million in 1994 when he destroyed a branch of Boots the Chemists in Newport on the Isle of Wight, because of the company's testing of its products on animals. He also set fire to department stores on the island that sold fur coats, and was eventually caught by police with further incendiary devices in his pocket.

Horne was convicted of six charges of arson and attempted arson at Bristol Crown Court in 1997. Although no one was hurt during Horne's campaign, the court heard that Horne had left devices hidden in products sold in the stores he had targeted. One woman had purchased a leather handbag containing one of the devices, but failed to discover it until four months later after she had allegedly allowed her children to play with it. [3] (http://www.animalrights.net/archives/related_topics/organizations/pro_ar/animals_betrayed_coalition.html)

While the court accepted that Horne had not intended to kill or injure anyone, the judge nevertheless described him as an "urban terrorist" and handed down an 18-year sentence, the longest given to any animal-rights protester in the UK. [4] (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F11%2F06%2Fnhorn06.xml)

Hunger strikes

Horne began his first hunger strike after the Labour Party failed to launch a Royal Commission of inquiry into vivisection when it came to power in 1997. The animal rights movement had voted for the party because party leaders had pledged to support such an inquiry, accepting £1 million in donations from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and producing a special pre-election leaflet to emphasize party support for such an inquiry.

Once elected, the new government did not set up an inquiry, though it did later ban cosmetics testing on animals. After two brief hunger strikes in 1997 and 1998 in protest, Horne began his third hunger strike in earnest in October 1998.

The 68-day hunger strike

Horne's longest hunger strike, which began on October 6, 1998 and ended 68 days later on December 13, brought the issue of animal experimentation to the forefront of British politics, with his deteriorating condition making headlines around the world, as activists threatened further disruption should he die, with some even issuing death threats against several scientists.

During the 68 days, groups of animal-rights protesters kept vigil outside the hospital in York where Horne was taken, and opposite the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, holding candles, placards, and photographs of Horne. At times, the group was joined by Sir Alan Clark, the flamboyant right-wing Conservative MP, historian, political diarist, and animal-rights supporter; the only Member of Parliament to offer the movement any public support during the protest. The Labour government refused to give in to what it called blackmail, and would not negotiate with Horne or his supporters.

Death threats

Toward the end of the hunger strike, when it appeared that Horne might die, the Animal Rights Militia (ARM), an extremist animal-rights group, issued a statement through Robin Webb, press officer of the Animal Liberation Front, threatening to assassinate four named individuals should Horne die: Sir Colin Blakemore, a controversial British scientist and now chief executive of the Medical Research Council who made his name in the 1980s by sewing kittens' eyes shut at birth to test the effects of blindness; Clive Page of King’s College, London, a professor of pulmonary pharmacology and now chair of the animal science group of the British Biosciences Federation; Mark Matfield of the Research Defence Society; and Christopher Brown, the owner of Hillgrove Farm in Oxfordshire, who at the time was breeding kittens for animal-testing purposes. [5] (http://www.animalrights.net/archives/related_topics/organizations/pro_ar/animals_betrayed_coalition.html) Hillgrove Farm was later put out of business by the same group of protesters now involved in the campaign to close Huntingdon Life Sciences. (See Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty.)

The death threats turned the public mood against Horne's campaign. Those on the ARM's list and other scientists were given police protection, and Special Branch stepped up its surveillance of activists, and in particular of Robin Webb.

Robin Webb and Channel 4

As Horne approached his 60th day without food, footage shot by an independent production company was shown on Channel 4 television. The film makers had secretly filmed Webb holding meetings with an individual who told Webb he wanted to arrange a bombing, but who in fact was working undercover for the production team. In the footage, Webb appeared to advise the individual on how to make a bomb. When Channel 4 aired the documentary, Webb's apparent willingness to offer advice about a potential bombing caused the Animal Liberation Front, which supports only non-violent action, to be firmly linked in the public mind with the Animal Rights Militia.

Accusations of fraud

Despite the government's refusal to negotiate with Horne or his supporters, a Labour MP who said he was acting independently of the government arranged for Michael Banner, the chair of the Animal Procedures Committee, to agree to attend a meeting with Ian Cawsey, head of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Animal Welfare, to discuss animal-testing practises. This was interpreted by Horne as a consession on the part of the government, and he agreed to start eating again on December 13, 1998.

Although he was left partially blind with serious kidney and liver damage, opponents accused Horne of having engaged in a fraud, saying he had been drinking orange juice and water with sugar during the 68 days.

See also

• Animal Liberation Front, Animal Liberation Front Supporters Group
• Animal testing, Vivisection
• Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
• GANDALF trial
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
• Animal rights
• Peter Singer
• Vegetarianism, Veganism
• Henry Spira

References

• Barry Horne (http://arkangelweb.org/barry), Arkangel magazine
• Barry's life (http://www.arkangelweb.org/barry/barry.shtml) written by one of his friends on the day of his death, Arkangel magazine
• "Bomber dies on hunger strike" (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F11%2F06%2Fnhorn06.xml) by Philip Johnston, The Daily Telegraph, November 6, 2001
• "To the death" (http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2001/11/15645.html) by Kevin Toolis, The Guardian, November 7, 2001
• "Barry Horne's Final Act on the public stage" (http://www.animalrights.net/archives/year/2001/000232.html) by Brian Carnell, AnimalRights.net, December 3, 2001 (despite this website's name, it is maintained by an anti-animal-rights group)
• "Hunger striker pulls back from the brink" (http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg16021650.500) by Jon Copley, New Scientist, December 19, 1998
• Colin Blakemore's biography (http://www.mrc.ac.uk/index/public-interest/public-events/public-specific_events/public-cb_roadshows/public-cb_biog.htm), Medical Research Council
• "The Barry Horne Fiasco" (http://www.animalrights.net/archives/related_topics/organizations/pro_ar/animals_betrayed_coalition.html), by Brian Carnell, AnimalRights.net, December 27, 1998
• "Professor Clive Page describes life under Special Branch protection" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/tested.shtml), BBC Radio 4, March 25, 2002