By Sarah Portlock
BBC News |
 Campaigners caught on camera stealing guinea pigs in Newchurch |
The planned desecration of Gladys Hammond's grave in the dead of night in October 2004 stunned and appalled the nation. "It isn't the type of incident you expect to be investigating in 21st Century Britain," said Det Ch Insp Nick Baker, from Staffordshire Police.
But campaigners for animal rights, while condemning what happened, have said the media coverage has caused people to miss an important point - namely that animal experiments bring suffering to animals.
Speaking after four extremists pleaded guilty to conspiracy to blackmail, Alistair Currie of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection condemned intimidation and violence.
 |  I think people who are really against animal cruelty will support us no matter what |
"We are now in a situation where there is bad publicity for anti-vivisectionists and this is understandable.
"We understand why there has been such media concentration on this issue.
"But it misses an important point and that is that animal experiments bring suffering to animals."
He added he thought people would still support campaigns to protect animals from suffering.
'Terrible deed'
"We condemn intimidation and violence wherever it occurs. We do not endorse the intimidatory tactics used in this case.
"We do strongly support the right for a peaceful protest," he said.
 The theft from Gladys Hammond's grave stunned the country |
"There is a third way - when people learn of both the suffering of animals in laboratories and the scientific failings of using animals, they will come over to us.
"We'll win this argument by changing hearts and minds, not by intimidation, blackmail and forcing people to change their behaviour against their will."
Speaking in Parliament, Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant condemned those who carried out "the terrible deed" and all those who persecute people working in medical research.
"These animal rights activists are hypocrites in the extreme because they will have had antibiotics and treatments and vaccinations against childhood diseases," he said.
"Sadly and unfortunately" these drugs had to be tested on animals, he added.
A spokeswoman for Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), a group which campaigns against the use of animals in testing at Huntingdon Life Sciences in Cambridgeshire, said she did not believe the media interest in the case had harmed their cause.
"If people are against animal cruelty they continue to be so.
"The media pick up on these cases and that is not surprising. But I think people who are really against animal cruelty will support us no matter what," she said.
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