From ELP Support Network

Dear friends,

As you may of already heard, Animal Liberation Prisoner of War, Barry Horne died yesterday. He died due to liver failure as a result of a hungerstrike.

ELP used to list Barry simply as "serving 18 years for various anti-vivisection arsons and attempted arsons." But people have started to ask ELP what were these arsons about? To understand that you need to look back to the events of the early 1990s.

In the 1980s there was an animal rights campaign against Boots the Chemists. This campaign effectively came to an end when Boots managed to persuade almost everyone it was an animal friendly company. However this lie was blown apart in the early 1990s when the ALF raided one of Boots two laboratories and rescued animals from their torture chambers. This action was quickly followed up by an Animal Liberation Investigation Unit (ALIU) investigation and roof top protest at the same vivisection lab.

These two high profile actions sparked a massive campaign in Britain against Boots the Chemists. Across the country local groups campaigned against Boots, which had suddenly taken on the public high street face of vivisection.

Practically everyone did their bit in the war against Boots. Local groups picketed Boots and encouraged boycotts. Direct actionists targeted Boots. Everything from roof top pickets, sits in and trolley runs to illegal economic sabotage.

Then in the early part of the mid 90s a series of high profile arsons happened against Boots. Each arson, on average, caused over £1,000,000 damage and the arsons were attributed to the Animal Rights Militia (ARM). As well as Boots stores the ARM also planted their incendiaries inside other stores such as Boots subsidiaries like Halfords (which sells bikes and car parts), a DIY store (which I can't remember the name of) and also inside other targets like the chain store 'Edinburgh Wools'.

One of the most famous of these arsons happened on the Isle of Wight where incendiary devices were planted in animal abuse stores all over the island. The islands firebrigade was stretch to its limits and unable to put out the fires until a lot of damage had occurred. An estimated £3,000,000 damage was caused to the Isle of Wight Boots store.

However in the mid 90s the news came that Barry Horne had been arrested in Bristol. He had been targetted by the police and spotted planting incendiary devices inside some animal abusers stores in Broadmead, Bristol. The police also found other incendiary devices on his person.

Once arrested for the Bristol attempted arsons, police forces across the country started to try and match Barry to other animal rights arsons. Hampshire Police (who police the Isle of Wight) were very keen to clear up the Isle of Wight arsons and started to suggest that Barry was responsible for these arsons.

At his trial the police claimed that Barry was the only person suspected of the Isle of Wight arsons (a blatant lie as the cops had arrested over 50 people in their investigations into the fires) and they also said the Bristol incendiary devices were identical to the ones used on the Isle of Wight.

At the end of a short trial, were Barry admitted attempted arson in Bristol but denied the Isle of Wight arsons, he was found guilty of both attempted arson (Bristol) and actual arson (Isle of Wight). He was sentenced to 14 years for the Bristol attempted arsons and 18 years for the Isle of Wight arsons.

However, prison bars and harsh sentences are never going to stop people from caring. And inside, to try and get the then newly elected Labour Government to honour their manifesto commitments to holding a Royal Commission into the use of animals in experiments, Barry started a hungerstrike. This hungerstrike was only called off when the Government gave assurances that they would look at the issue of vivisection. However they reneged on these assurances and Barry restarted his hungerstrike. It is unclear why his second hungerstrike came to an end, but it is believed the Government had offered him some sort of negotiation. Again they lied.

Barry then carried out a series of other hungerstrikes, the last one proving fatal. It has been reported that this latest hungerstrike was in protest at the Government's disasterous handling of the Foot & Mouth crisis in Britain.

Following Barry's death I am sure that the media will try to paint Barry as a fanatic. A human hater. This is far from the truth. He was just a man who cared passionately for the animals and who believed that politicians should honour their pledges.

When I was inside, Barry, was one of the first to write to me to offer his support and to remind me to stay strong.

Barry was full of compassion and commitment for the animals. He died the way he lived his life, fighting for the animals. He will be deeply missed and his death will reinvigorate the struggle he stood for, animal liberation!