Animal testing lab saved from closure

Camapigners on both sides of the Atlantic have targeted the company

LONDON, England -- A controversial British animal testing laboratory has been saved from closure after raising millions of dollars to refinance its loans.

Huntingdon Life Sciences -- which animal rights campaigners have vowed to close down --struck the eleventh-hour deal with as yet unidentified foreign backers.

The company had been given until midnight on Friday to repay $33.33 million (£22.6 million) to the Royal Bank of Scotland and two unnamed U.S. banks or negotiate an extension.

Huntingdon, which also has laboratories in the U.S. regularly targeted by campaigners, say they are confident for the future despite the prospect of further animal rights protests at its sites.

UK Science Minister Lord Sainsbury spearheaded government efforts to save Huntingdon, which employs 1,200 people, from receivership.

A Huntingdon spokesman said: "The company is now confident of its financial stability and prospects for growth."

Demonstrators at Huntingdon's site in New Jersey

The terms of the company's loan have been extended until June 30, 2006. Agreement has also been reached with investors to provide working capital sufficient for the company's needs, he added.

Animal rights protesters had picketed a central London branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland to increase pressure on the group to pull the plug on Huntingdon.

And they have threatened to take their campaign to drive the company out of business to the U.S. if an American firm came to Huntingdon's rescue.

Heather James, from the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty group, said "We really have not started on them yet. Our strategy is planned out and we know what we are doing.

"We have got protest tactics that we haven't even started using yet. If anything this will just act as an incentive for us to step up the campaign to stop this terrible cruelty towards animals."

"They may have got away this time by the skin of their teeth and just avoided bankruptcy but we will not be going away. When we targeted them a year ago we said it would take three years to close them down and we will achieve that."

Several investors have sold their stakes in Huntingdon for fear of bad publicity or threats from animal rights extremists. This week, U.S. bank Citibank said it had dropped links with the firm.

The pharmaceutical industry has rallied behind Huntingdon, worried that if protesters manage to close it down they will move on to other firms doing the same type of research.

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry estimates some 2.6 million animals are used in tests each year -- 85 percent of them rats and mice.

Huntingdon is one of Britain's largest contract research organisations, and carries out medical research experiments on about 70,000 animals a year.

The number of animals used in drug development has fallen by nearly half in the past 20 years.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Huntingdon Life Sciences
Animal Concerns Community
Animal Defence Legue
Association fo the British Pharmaceutical Industry
UK Govt: Office of Science and Technology

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