News Release
FBR Statement on Activist Intimidation
March 7, 2003
Following a week-long campaign of harassment and
intimidation by animal extremists in the UK, the accounting firm
Deloitte & Touche announced on Friday that it would terminate
its four-year auditing relationship with Huntingdon Life Sciences
(HLS) – one of the world’s largest providers of product
development services to the pharmaceutical, agrochemical and biotechnology
industries.
While the difficulties created by the animal activists
for the accounting giant were not insignificant (windows broken,
doors glued closed, company executives and their families hounded
with pickets, leaflets, phone calls and emails for several days
running), Deloitte’s hasty retreat from its client, which
has long been targeted by the same hooligan group, has raised more
than a few troubling questions about corporate preparedness and
duty.
On Monday, the lead editorial in The Independent
newspaper described Deloitte’s abrupt exit as “a minor
act of moral cowardice.” And on the issue of the harassment
endured by the accounting firm, the editors offered: “(It)
is a disgraceful burden which ought not to be diminished in any
way, but Deloitte is under an obligation, as a partnership, not
to yield to such extortion.”
Other observers were harsher. The Guardian
characterized Deloitte & Touche as “a corporate coward”
and warned readers that “the forces of Mannon are falling
like nine-pins.”
For his part, the managing director of HLS merely
said he was disappointed that Deloitte & Touche had been coerced
into making its decision. But considering his personal experience,
Brian Cass may have been damning his auditors with faint praise.
In 2001, Mr. Cass was attacked and badly beaten, as was a neighbor
who came to his aid, by masked men wielding axe handles. His courageous
decision to return to publicly condemn his attackers and return
to work, led British Prime Minister Tony Blair to announce greater
government protections for the UK’s research industry. Queen
Elizabeth II also acknowledged his bravery by honoring Mr. Cass
with a CBE.
Whether the extremists who scared off the Big Four
firm believe that new drugs should be tested on human subjects,
rather than animals (in violation of federal and international laws),
or that the research holding out promise for new preventions, treatments
and cures, should stop altogether, is not clear. But they have been
relentless in their despicable crusade to shut down HLS operations
in the UK and here in the USA where the contract testing lab has
a large operation in New Jersey.
Two years ago, using the same crude tactics, “SHAC’
(as the group calls itself), pressured the Royal Bank of Scotland
to withdraw as HLS’s bankers. They also set their sites on
others companies including: Investment brokers Stephens Inc., Merrill
Lynch, Barclays, HSBC, Schroders, the Bank of New York and insurance
brokers Marsh & McLennan, most of which were wholly unprepared
for and unable to cope with the nasty and occasionally violent protests
of these animal extremists. From market-makers to stockbrokers,
from janitorial supply companies to shareholders, SHAC has targeted,
with near impunity, anyone who does business with HLS.
Only in Boston has there been any progress made
in stopping this vicious campaign and bringing its perpetrators
to justice. The Massachusetts Attorney General has indicted several
SHAC activists and they are awaiting trial on charges stemming from
the relentless campaign of intimidation waged against one Marsh
employee and his family. Among the defendants are several “John
and Jane Does,” so-indicted because police and prosecutors
have, as yet, been unable to identify them.
Sadly, the Deloitte & Touche may be interpreted
publicly as tacit disapproval for biomedical research. Certainly,
and predictably, it is being celebrated as an enormous victory by
the activists who are jubilant about their apparent ability to get
a Big Four firm to fold like a road map – in record time.
This bodes particularly poorly, not only for research firms but
all of corporate America.
Beyond the issue of research and the debate surrounding
animal rights, there is a larger and more troubling message surrounding
this regrettable incident. This is because those who seek to attack
any corporation for any reason have now been provided with an effective
model to gain publicity for their cause, seriously harm an institution,
its employees, customers and vendors and suffer little or no retribution.
At the moment it is conspicuously clear that even
the largest and most powerful corporations are ill-prepared to respond
to this type of attack. Unless companies are willing to stand on
their convictions, it’s likely that we are just witnessing
the beginning of a very serious problem.
Those who seek to end biomedical research –
either because they choose to reject its well established validity
or because they believe the life of a rat is equal in value to that
of child – are sure to continue these tactics to subvert medical
and scientific progress by targeting the corporations like HLS,
and their professional associates, like Deloitte & Touche.
Rather than embolden and encourage these criminals by running and
hiding when the going gets tough, it behooves corporate America
to be ready, willing and able to stand up to these activists and
condemn this type of extortion.
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