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August 23, 2004 Animal
Rights Standoff at Garnier Home Aniimal rights activists turned their attentions directly on Jean-Pierre Garnier yesterday by holding a 30-strong protest outside the GlaxoSmithKline chief executive's mansion just outside Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania. The UK-listed drugs company said it was forced to send a "security presence" to the home of Mr Garnier, who recently condemned animal rights activists as "despicable cowards". The police were also present as the militants marched up and down the street for an hour, chanting and holding banners accusing Mr Garnier of "torturing animals for profit". The activist group, known as Hugs for Puppies, also planned to post leaflets about Mr Garnier to his neighbours and stop people on the street to repeat the accusations. One of the organisers, Alex Deyo, cited Mr Garnier's recent comments in the British press - where he said the security threat posed by activists was damaging the UK economy - as a main motive for the demonstration. advertisement"He's only been speaking to the British media against animal rights groups and has been speaking like he's a victim when he actually lives in the US," said Ms Deyo. Asked if Hugs for Puppies was therefore planning to make a victim of Mr Garnier, she said: "No." Asked if the group, which has around 100 members, would describe itself as a terrorist organisation, Ms Deyo said: "Absolutely not. We only hold peaceful demonstrations." Asked if the group was supportive of terrorist acts against companies that used animals for research, she said: "I wouldn't say they are terrorist acts. The terrorists are those who are pouring chemicals into the animals' eyes, cutting them open while they are alive and punching them in the face." A spokesman for GlaxoSmithKline said: "This is a common tactic of animal rights activists and some of our executives have been targeted in this way in the UK. People have a right to express their opinions. There is a right to free speech and they have a right to go there, as long it is peaceful and lawful. There is a difference between that and violence and intimidation, which is where we start to have concerns." Mr Garnier has said the company is spending tens of millions of pounds on protecting staff and buildings from militants. He was commenting after an academic estimated that the threats from anti-vivisection militants were costing Britain £1billion a year. "I take it very personally," he told The Telegraph last month. "When your general counsel has to go into hiding in some apartment and has to move out of his house with his young children because he has been threatened, you do take that personally." Mr Garnier was unavailable for comment yesterday. However, his spokesman said: "Regulatory authorities around the world require animal research - it is the only way to ensure medicines are safe for man. We are doing everything we can to reduce the amount of animals we use and to use other methods of testing." Protesters from Hugs for Puppies were delayed in traffic for some time while driving out of the city to Mr Garnier's house in the nearby rural district of Devon, Pennsylvania. If their protests, which passed off peacefully, were an attempt to disturb Mr Garnier's Sunday afternoon, they did not appear to succeed: he was away on holiday.
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