Camp Beagle Makes Headline News – MBR Acres Wyton protest celebrates four years of Camp Beagle
By Oliver Murphy – Hunts Post Reporter
Activists descended on a puppy breeding facility near Huntingdon this weekend to mark four years since the formation of the UK’s longest animal rights protest camp.
Protestors from Camp Beagle gathered outside MBR Acres, in Wyton, to celebrate the milestone.
The group was founded in 2021 shortly after footage of beagles inside the facility was obtained, prompting regular protests outside the site.
It has maintained a permanent presence with the demand to close the facility and end the use of beagles for research purposes.
Camp Beagle is behind a recently launched petition which gained more than 100,000 signatures and was debated in Parliament.
The group’s spokesperson John Curtin told The Hunts Post around 150 campaigners gathered for the protest outside MBR Acres on Saturday (June 28).
He said: “We’re coming together to celebrate the incredible teamwork and progress of the camp over the last four years.
“We’ve captivated an audience through an incredibly tough project of a human presence outside these gates.
“We’ve never given up and here we are four years later”.
Protestors were joined by theatre actor and former husband of comedian Alan Carr, Paul Drayton – who paid his “first visit” to the site – and singer Simon King.
Mr Drayton told activists: “It’s the first time I’ve been to Camp Beatle as I knew this place would break my heart.
“It’s so terrible what happens to these beagles and how they are bred. This must end, we are a nation of dog lovers.”
Cambridgeshire Police confirmed no arrests had been made and that the force had worked “closes with local agencies” to ensure disruption was “minimised.”
A spokesperson said officers would “provide a proportionate policing response, balancing the needs and rights of protestors with those impacted by the protest.”
It comes just two months after hundreds of protestors gathered in what was described as the “biggest demonstrations against animal experiments” in the UK.
The protest was organised to coincide with World Day for Animals in Laboratories which was established in 1979 and falls on April 24.
Camp Beagle spokesperson John Curtin speaking at the group’s protest on April 26. Around 300 animal activists assembled outside MBR Acres on April 26 to protest against the work of the puppy breeding facility.
Two activists were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass, two on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker and one on suspicion of criminal damage.
A 28-year-old woman and a 41-year-old man, both of no known address, were released on bail until July 20 and July 24 respectively.
The remaining three activists were issued conditional cautions.
A spokesperson for Marshall Bioresources, the US Corporation behind the eight-acre at Sawtry Way said:
“Protesting outside a kennels isn’t going to end animal testing, but it will scare the dogs and damage animal welfare.
“If there really were alternative technologies, the UK government and major scientific institutions around the world would have banned animal testing.
“This demonstrates that the carefully regulated use of animals in scientific research remains necessary to protect human and animal health and the wider environment.”
US Corporation Marshall Bioresources owns the eight-acre site at Sawtry Way. They added: “Our vital role in this is simply to supply healthy, happy, and content animals that are housed in the company of other dogs, making them well-suited to life in a laboratory setting in a clinical environment.
“They are used for biomedical research, to give the UK public access to the most advanced medical innovations. Practically all the medicines and medical treatments we – and our pets – have access to today have been developed and tested using animals.
“Harassing our animal care staff, causing upset for our animals, and attacking buildings isn’t the way to make the scientific discoveries needed to replace animal testing.”
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The Camp Beagle Team