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Your Neighbour Kills Puppies: Inside the Animal Liberation Movement
For many, the name 'Huntingdon Life Sciences' will live forever in infamy. In the early 2000s, Europe's largest animal testing laboratory provoked public outrage and sparked a resistance movement. Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) knew the struggles for animal and human liberation to be inextricably linked. The State knew that they had to be stopped…
Your Neighbour Kills Puppies tells the complete inside story of this remarkable campaign and the forces arrayed against it. It exposes a murky world of institutional animal exploitation, government collusion, corporate lobbyists, agent provocateurs, and police spies desperate to silence dissent.
Author and campaign veteran Tom Harris transports the reader into the heart of the action, through underground tunnels and illicit animal rescues, before detailing the brutal state-led crackdown, which saw scores of activists violently arrested and imprisoned.
Your Neighbour Kills Puppies tells the complete inside story of this remarkable campaign and the forces arrayed against it. It exposes a murky world of institutional animal exploitation, government collusion, corporate lobbyists, agent provocateurs, and police spies desperate to silence dissent.
Author and campaign veteran Tom Harris transports the reader into the heart of the action, through underground tunnels and illicit animal rescues, before detailing the brutal state-led crackdown, which saw scores of activists violently arrested and imprisoned.
496 pages, Paperback
Published March 20, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 20, 2024
I genuinely couldn’t put this down.
Every page elicited a new emotion as I followed a rag-tag group of activists to the heights of their campaign and then deeper and deeper into a government conspiracy that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Soviet Russia.
The level of research Tom has gone into with this book is second to none. Every single heart-wrenching claim is backed up by a reference, and at the back of the book, it is mind-blowing how many references there are. It is remarkable to think how much truly went down during this period and what they fought against. Something that still happens today.
An eye-opening piece of modern British history, which unfortunately still rings true today. A very important piece of work that chronicles how much people are willing to risk of themselves for animals who have no voice. They have, literally at times, set the world alight to make it a better place, and it's truly inspiring. This needs to be read, shared, and talked about if we want any hope of a better future.
Every page elicited a new emotion as I followed a rag-tag group of activists to the heights of their campaign and then deeper and deeper into a government conspiracy that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Soviet Russia.
The level of research Tom has gone into with this book is second to none. Every single heart-wrenching claim is backed up by a reference, and at the back of the book, it is mind-blowing how many references there are. It is remarkable to think how much truly went down during this period and what they fought against. Something that still happens today.
An eye-opening piece of modern British history, which unfortunately still rings true today. A very important piece of work that chronicles how much people are willing to risk of themselves for animals who have no voice. They have, literally at times, set the world alight to make it a better place, and it's truly inspiring. This needs to be read, shared, and talked about if we want any hope of a better future.
March 31, 2024
(unsurprisingly, content warning: animal cruelty)
The book tells the story of a movement that spanned multiple continents over more than a decade. It emphasises states' willingness to spend ridiculous amounts of resources to protect the business interests, disregarding animal life and human life (unsurprisingly). A quote from the book: "The efficacy of the campaign, and its potentioal impact on big business and the economy, rather than the criminality of its supporters, dictated the state's behaviour."
It is definitely a must read for everyone.
I would also recommend watching the documentary The Animal People
The book tells the story of a movement that spanned multiple continents over more than a decade. It emphasises states' willingness to spend ridiculous amounts of resources to protect the business interests, disregarding animal life and human life (unsurprisingly). A quote from the book: "The efficacy of the campaign, and its potentioal impact on big business and the economy, rather than the criminality of its supporters, dictated the state's behaviour."
It is definitely a must read for everyone.
I would also recommend watching the documentary The Animal People
May 1, 2024
This book has filled me with admiration, inspiration and rage all at once. It’s clearly well researched, with a variety of witness statements, yet is still a gripping narrative. A must read for anyone interested in protesting injustice.
April 25, 2024
Such a compelling read - I thought I knew about the protests against Huntingdon Life Sciences in the 1990s / 2000s but to hear it from the perspectives of those inside the movement is incredibly powerful. An inspiring story about a truly innovative protest movement and an infuriating call-to-arms for the next generation.
April 22, 2025
In Your Neighbor Kills Puppies: Inside the Animal Liberation Movement author Tom Harris has written a comprehensive history of the battles won and lost in the UK, US and around the world as animal rights activists fought to free animals from testing laboratories and put the vivisection industry out of business. Harris is an authoritative voice on behalf of the activists having participated firsthand in many of these battles.
Harris begins with the origins of the movement, in 1996, when Gregg Avery and Heather Nicholson began a campaign to shut down Consort Bio Services near Hereford, England, a lab that bred beagle puppies for vivisection laboratories. Through protests, vigils, and leafletting, their organization grew in numbers and effectiveness until Consort could take no more, shutting down a year later. This victory was preamble to a much-larger foe: Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), an animal testing lab with high-level ties to the UK government.
Activists branded the campaign Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), which would last more than a decade and prompt governments on both sides of the Atlantic to respond with draconian laws that continue to silence peaceful protests today.
SHAC was endlessly creative in its efforts — targeting politicians, animal transporters, banks — anyone with connections to HLS. HLS eventually established a lab in New Jersey as one way of escaping home-grown resistance. Which led to the formation of SHAC USA, founded by Kevin Kjonas. In the inaugural newsletter he wrote:
We’re a new breed of activism. We’re not your parents’ Humane Society. We’re not Friends of Animals. We’re not Earthsave. We’re not Greenpeace. We come with a new philosophy. We hold the radical line. We will not compromise. We will not apologize, and we will not relent.
And they did not relent. While some may take issue with the techniques these activists used nobody could argue that animals weren’t being put through unimaginable forms of torture.
As in the UK labs, the New Jersey lab was no less cruel. Violence to animals had become so institutionalized that fatal mistakes were awarded with “diamond club” membership. Meaning if you inserted chemicals into a beagle’s lung instead of stomach resulting in death, you were rewarded in this perverse way. Psychologists could not doubt teach a seminar in how seemingly normal humans turn evil in environments in which empathy is viewed as a liability. Much like working in a slaughterhouse, I can only imagine the trauma that employees, who simply needed a job, had to endure. And, yes, they could have quit. Many did, but it took outsiders — some acting as insiders — to shine light on the systemic abuses.
Kim Basinger used her fame to rescue 36 beagles from the New Jersey lab “due to be mutilated on behalf of the Japanese pharmaceutical company Yamanouchi.” Specifically, the lab would have forcibly broken the dogs’ legs in order to learn whether a drug would have affected bone healing. As the author notes, these animals don’t get put back together in the end; they get put down.
While reading this book I kept thinking that the animal activists would soon emerge victorious. Huntingdon was running out of friends in high places and was financially hanging by a thread.
Then came 9/11.
From that day forward, any animal rights protestor could be labelled a terrorist. And in a few years the US government, pressured by the animal and pharmaceutical industries, passed the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. The law effectively turned peaceful protestors into criminals so long as they were protesting an “animal enterprise.” Even handing out leaflets could be cause for prosecution. The FBI arrested 7 activists who came to be known as the SHAC 7.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy of all is that so many animal lives were sacrificed not for saving human lives but for checking boxes. An increasing number of scientists have since gone public with data that prove animal testing adds little to no scientific value, that it does not actually protect humans. Harris writes: “A career vivisector told me data from animal research is easily manipulated, and that the industry relies on that susceptibility to meet goals and metrics.”
This 400-page book can feel overwhelming at times with the many names and protests and places, but I felt it was important to document everyone involved as they sacrificed so much: jobs, relationships and, at times, their freedom. Harris writes:
Amidst hundreds of arrests and prosecutions across the globe, between 2000 and 2020, there were just twelve weeks without an anti-HLS activist in prison; in 2010 over a dozen campaigners languished in jail in the UK alone.
Sadly, HLS did not go bankrupt. Animal testing did not come to an end. HLS was acquired by a company that you may be familiar with: LabCorp. LabCorp claims to treat animals “humanely” — which is not the word I would use. The lab was fined $9,000 last year by the USDA for a crime better left unmentioned here.
One might say that all those years, all those protests, all those years in prison were for nothing. The bad guys won.
I would say the bad guys might have won the battle, but the war is still being fought. This book documents a critical period in the evolution of animal rights — one in which the public could no longer be in denial about what happened to animals within these laboratories. Ultimately, this book is a call to action for the next generation of animal activists.
NOTE: This review was first published in EcoLitBooks.com
Harris begins with the origins of the movement, in 1996, when Gregg Avery and Heather Nicholson began a campaign to shut down Consort Bio Services near Hereford, England, a lab that bred beagle puppies for vivisection laboratories. Through protests, vigils, and leafletting, their organization grew in numbers and effectiveness until Consort could take no more, shutting down a year later. This victory was preamble to a much-larger foe: Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), an animal testing lab with high-level ties to the UK government.
Activists branded the campaign Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), which would last more than a decade and prompt governments on both sides of the Atlantic to respond with draconian laws that continue to silence peaceful protests today.
SHAC was endlessly creative in its efforts — targeting politicians, animal transporters, banks — anyone with connections to HLS. HLS eventually established a lab in New Jersey as one way of escaping home-grown resistance. Which led to the formation of SHAC USA, founded by Kevin Kjonas. In the inaugural newsletter he wrote:
We’re a new breed of activism. We’re not your parents’ Humane Society. We’re not Friends of Animals. We’re not Earthsave. We’re not Greenpeace. We come with a new philosophy. We hold the radical line. We will not compromise. We will not apologize, and we will not relent.
And they did not relent. While some may take issue with the techniques these activists used nobody could argue that animals weren’t being put through unimaginable forms of torture.
As in the UK labs, the New Jersey lab was no less cruel. Violence to animals had become so institutionalized that fatal mistakes were awarded with “diamond club” membership. Meaning if you inserted chemicals into a beagle’s lung instead of stomach resulting in death, you were rewarded in this perverse way. Psychologists could not doubt teach a seminar in how seemingly normal humans turn evil in environments in which empathy is viewed as a liability. Much like working in a slaughterhouse, I can only imagine the trauma that employees, who simply needed a job, had to endure. And, yes, they could have quit. Many did, but it took outsiders — some acting as insiders — to shine light on the systemic abuses.
Kim Basinger used her fame to rescue 36 beagles from the New Jersey lab “due to be mutilated on behalf of the Japanese pharmaceutical company Yamanouchi.” Specifically, the lab would have forcibly broken the dogs’ legs in order to learn whether a drug would have affected bone healing. As the author notes, these animals don’t get put back together in the end; they get put down.
While reading this book I kept thinking that the animal activists would soon emerge victorious. Huntingdon was running out of friends in high places and was financially hanging by a thread.
Then came 9/11.
From that day forward, any animal rights protestor could be labelled a terrorist. And in a few years the US government, pressured by the animal and pharmaceutical industries, passed the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. The law effectively turned peaceful protestors into criminals so long as they were protesting an “animal enterprise.” Even handing out leaflets could be cause for prosecution. The FBI arrested 7 activists who came to be known as the SHAC 7.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy of all is that so many animal lives were sacrificed not for saving human lives but for checking boxes. An increasing number of scientists have since gone public with data that prove animal testing adds little to no scientific value, that it does not actually protect humans. Harris writes: “A career vivisector told me data from animal research is easily manipulated, and that the industry relies on that susceptibility to meet goals and metrics.”
This 400-page book can feel overwhelming at times with the many names and protests and places, but I felt it was important to document everyone involved as they sacrificed so much: jobs, relationships and, at times, their freedom. Harris writes:
Amidst hundreds of arrests and prosecutions across the globe, between 2000 and 2020, there were just twelve weeks without an anti-HLS activist in prison; in 2010 over a dozen campaigners languished in jail in the UK alone.
Sadly, HLS did not go bankrupt. Animal testing did not come to an end. HLS was acquired by a company that you may be familiar with: LabCorp. LabCorp claims to treat animals “humanely” — which is not the word I would use. The lab was fined $9,000 last year by the USDA for a crime better left unmentioned here.
One might say that all those years, all those protests, all those years in prison were for nothing. The bad guys won.
I would say the bad guys might have won the battle, but the war is still being fought. This book documents a critical period in the evolution of animal rights — one in which the public could no longer be in denial about what happened to animals within these laboratories. Ultimately, this book is a call to action for the next generation of animal activists.
NOTE: This review was first published in EcoLitBooks.com
March 10, 2025
A very detailed account of the animal liberation movement over twenty years of its history, primarily covering the SHAC campaign and its offshoots. The courage, dedication, and creativity of the activists who fought the unimaginable cruelty of the vivisection industry as led by Huntingdon Life Sciences is really inspiring. What goes on in that facility and others like it in the name of science is unacceptable and unforgivable and it's a blot on our species that the practice still exists.
The weaponization of government against the activists as portrayed here and in the similar account of 'Green Is The New Red' is absolutely infuriating. At many points I found myself seething. That such a miscarriage of justice was allowed to happen in this millennium in countries like the UK and the U.S. is insane. As a society we need to insist on the preservation of the right to protest. As long as we let the government be captured by the interests of corporations, and thereby work for their preservation, we will be kept from a much better world we could otherwise have.
The UK and U.S. governments' decision to side with companies that are entirely based upon abject animal cruelty, just because of the contribution they make to GDP, serves as a strong rebuke of capitalism. As long as profit and growth are counted as the highest goods, anything will be allowed to further those ends and any effort to curtail business or industry on ethical grounds, be it animal rights, environmental damage, worker exploitation, or anything else, will be suppressed.
Some may object that animal testing is necessary for saving human lives due to its use in medical research. The book addressed it a bit but could have gone into more depth about why animal testing does not contribute much, if at all, to the frontiers of research on the treatment of various diseases. One has to ask oneself, even if it did contribute to humanity, do we have the right to subject sentient beings to torture, misery, and enslavement just because it benefits us?
The weaponization of government against the activists as portrayed here and in the similar account of 'Green Is The New Red' is absolutely infuriating. At many points I found myself seething. That such a miscarriage of justice was allowed to happen in this millennium in countries like the UK and the U.S. is insane. As a society we need to insist on the preservation of the right to protest. As long as we let the government be captured by the interests of corporations, and thereby work for their preservation, we will be kept from a much better world we could otherwise have.
The UK and U.S. governments' decision to side with companies that are entirely based upon abject animal cruelty, just because of the contribution they make to GDP, serves as a strong rebuke of capitalism. As long as profit and growth are counted as the highest goods, anything will be allowed to further those ends and any effort to curtail business or industry on ethical grounds, be it animal rights, environmental damage, worker exploitation, or anything else, will be suppressed.
Some may object that animal testing is necessary for saving human lives due to its use in medical research. The book addressed it a bit but could have gone into more depth about why animal testing does not contribute much, if at all, to the frontiers of research on the treatment of various diseases. One has to ask oneself, even if it did contribute to humanity, do we have the right to subject sentient beings to torture, misery, and enslavement just because it benefits us?
May 28, 2024
Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) was an anti-vivisection movement that aimed to shut down Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS): one of Europe’s largest animal-testing laboratories that was found on numerous occasions to have broken laws and committed heinous incidents of abuse of animals in their ‘care’ such as punching beagle puppies. Harris chronologically documents the organisations campaign, spanning 1996 to 2018, in a mix of reportage-style documentation of the movement with testimony from other activists and campaigners spread throughout.
For anyone who cares about animals this is an insider account of a movement that achieved a great deal, spread globally and used novel techniques protesting not only HLS but all of those who associated with it. Ultimately they did not achieve their ultimate aim of shutting down HLS and preventing the experiments and death of further animals: the state took exceptional measures to protect HLS and the activists were labelled terrorists and many were imprisoned.
Reading any book on animal liberation is difficult as it often involves depictions of violence and abuse. While this book has such moments (and I found myself closing the book to cuddle my pet dog extra hard or give him an extra treat) they are limited as it is ultimately a story about tactics, strategy, justice and democracy. The story of SHAC raises wider issues of democracy and justice: which voices are heard, the role of the state and profit, where are the boundaries of lawful and unlawful protest, unintended consequences of protest, police brutality and the sacrifice of activists who ultimately have a vision of a more compassionate world.
For anyone who cares about animals this is an insider account of a movement that achieved a great deal, spread globally and used novel techniques protesting not only HLS but all of those who associated with it. Ultimately they did not achieve their ultimate aim of shutting down HLS and preventing the experiments and death of further animals: the state took exceptional measures to protect HLS and the activists were labelled terrorists and many were imprisoned.
Reading any book on animal liberation is difficult as it often involves depictions of violence and abuse. While this book has such moments (and I found myself closing the book to cuddle my pet dog extra hard or give him an extra treat) they are limited as it is ultimately a story about tactics, strategy, justice and democracy. The story of SHAC raises wider issues of democracy and justice: which voices are heard, the role of the state and profit, where are the boundaries of lawful and unlawful protest, unintended consequences of protest, police brutality and the sacrifice of activists who ultimately have a vision of a more compassionate world.
June 9, 2024
This book is painstakingly researched and impossible to put down. Before I started reading I expected it to be a book I’d dip in to (as I usually do with non-fiction) but it had me gripped from the first page.
The stories of these incredibly brave & selfless activists is so compelling, they are up against not just the HLS but also the police & governments globally. It is so sad that they were treated as terrorists for speaking out against such an evil & heartless cruelty .. yet the people actually committing acts of horrific cruelty against non-human animals are backed with impunity by the government.
Alas the same thing is happening now in terms of human rights vs power & money in the Palestinian plight. It is so sad that speaking out in empathy & for peace gets you branded as a terrorist.
SHAC stood on the right side of history and the activists are heroes. (I’d highly recommend watching The Animal People too)
The stories of these incredibly brave & selfless activists is so compelling, they are up against not just the HLS but also the police & governments globally. It is so sad that they were treated as terrorists for speaking out against such an evil & heartless cruelty .. yet the people actually committing acts of horrific cruelty against non-human animals are backed with impunity by the government.
Alas the same thing is happening now in terms of human rights vs power & money in the Palestinian plight. It is so sad that speaking out in empathy & for peace gets you branded as a terrorist.
SHAC stood on the right side of history and the activists are heroes. (I’d highly recommend watching The Animal People too)
March 22, 2026
Brilliantly researched and engaging book from someone involved SHAC. A stark reminder of how the British state and police will always defend capital, and cannot be trusted to protect people or animals. The prevalence of spy cops, disproportionate police force and the government creating laws to stop animal rights activism is really scary and harrowing to read about.
Huge respect to all animal rights activists involved, who persevered to save thousands of lives when the whole apparatus of the state was leveraged against them. This was an amazing campaign and I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Huge respect to all animal rights activists involved, who persevered to save thousands of lives when the whole apparatus of the state was leveraged against them. This was an amazing campaign and I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
September 25, 2024
Wow… Reading this book has been a roller-coaster of emotions...
It was heart-breaking to read how puppies, but also cats, rodents, primates, etc. are tortured in laboratories... It was inspiring to see that some people are willing to risk everything to help non-human animals... It was uplifting to see how much a group of dedicated activists can achieve... And it was revolting, sickening, to see how far corporations and governments are willing to go to silence law-abiding citizens who simply demand justice...
I wish every vegan would read this book and strive to be a little bit more like these amazing Animal People 💜
It was heart-breaking to read how puppies, but also cats, rodents, primates, etc. are tortured in laboratories... It was inspiring to see that some people are willing to risk everything to help non-human animals... It was uplifting to see how much a group of dedicated activists can achieve... And it was revolting, sickening, to see how far corporations and governments are willing to go to silence law-abiding citizens who simply demand justice...
I wish every vegan would read this book and strive to be a little bit more like these amazing Animal People 💜
July 10, 2024
Meticulously researched and clearly written with love, this book was gripping, fascinating and despite the obviously serious and emotive subject matter also retained a dry sense of humour throughout. A testament to what can be achieved when you believe in your cause and join forces with like minded people world wide. You will find this equal parts inspiring and anger inducing to learn the extent to which people in power tried - and at times succeeded - to undermine the efforts of activists.
April 20, 2024
An absolute must read for anyone with even a passing interest in Animal Rights. It's disgusting what the UK government put these people through just to allow people to make a profit from the extreme suffering of animals.
September 10, 2025
A brutal and unjust book portraying a group of animal activists fighting against the government, the police and the 'scientists' who continue to harm and murder animals for the alleged benefit of the human race. A necessary read.
April 5, 2024
I am so impressed by its comprehensive narrative, Well researched content and the fluidity of story telling that I can confidently write a review now. A subject matter that needs to reach every corner of the globe. Animal experiments need to be consigned to the history books and this is an Inspring read outlining an impressive and well co ordinated campaign to end the notorious Huntingdon life science torture lab. Well done Tom Harris.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews