The UK’s largest supermarket group, Tesco, is expected to find itself the focus of animal rights demonstrations today (9 January), as an anti-vivisection group protests over the loan repayments extension granted by the store’s personal finance partner, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), to Huntingdon Life Sciences.
Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) has campaigned aggressively for the cessation of live animal experiments at the drugs testing group for many months now, with the bank financing provided by RBS proving the focus of campaign attention. It has threatened to publish the private addresses of RBS directors and explains that after repayment of a £22.5m loan was already extended during October and December, “we made a decision that if it was extended beyond January 5, then we would restart the […] campaign with a drive and determination that would take their breath away.”
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HLS found it essential to ask for the further 14-day extension of its loan finance after a US consortium of investors withdrew its offer of a £34m refinancing package amid fears it too could become a target for animal rights protestors. The company has revealed that it hopes this extension could last longer than a fortnight: “There is absolute certainty on two things here. One, we owe RBS and the other banks £22.6m. Two, we do not have £22.6m.”
The aim of the rallies at Tesco is to convince RBS to withdraw financial support and put the future of HLS at risk. Greg Avery of SHAC was quoted in The Financial Times as promising protests that would be “peaceful but very noisy, very visual and very effective.”
