This is Camp Beagle which I have written about before.
Wonders of wildlife in Norfolk part I – Animal Wild
“There was somewhere I wanted to visit on my way up to King’s Lynn, Camp Beagle, on the outskirts of Huntingdon, which I wrote about here:
Your Neighbour Kills Puppies; Inside the Animal Liberation Movement – Animal Wild
The protest site has existed outside Marshall Bioresources (MBR) Acres, a factory breeding puppies for cruel and pointless experiments, since June 2021 and it will not be going away. It even has its own official traffic signs on the busy road on which it is situated. I felt it would be intrusive to photograph the four army-style tents in which the protestors live, but these pictures show the terrible lie plastered onto the gates of the factory and the responses on the other side of the road.”
An e-mail from this brave and tireless group prompted me to watch the harrowing documentary on Amazon about Vivotecnia, a European animal experimentation company, and MBR Acres which supplies their beagles.
It is well-known now that all of these experiments are completely pointless. The only reason for them is profit. This is the story of Carlota Saorsa, who went undercover with a camera built in to her glasses at Vivotecnia for eighteen months. Because of the criminal nature of what she filmed, she is a protected witness and is played by an actress throughout the programme. Her courage is astonishing. She felt an empathy for animals from a very early age and trying to save a pig from slaughter was the catalyst for everything that followed. People like her, like human rights protestors and feminists (the Greenham women for example) can change the world. Her role models include Rosa Parks, Angela Davis, Emma Goldman and Jane Goodall. Carlota fights for animals. She became a vet and worked at animal sanctuaries but then turned to the movement, the activists. PETA is mentioned in the context of the famous dog Britches and the appalling footage of her treatment in such a place, as is stalwart Mel Broughton and the Animal Liberation Front.
It really is all about money. In America, activists were described as terrorists and the nation’s biggest threat, but of course the only terrorism and violence is that inflicted on the animals.
A veterinary technician’s job came up and she turned up to the windowless premises. As soon as she entered she heard the cries and smelt the stench of desperation. It was, she says, “like breathing fear”. But she was in. The cages alone suggest that some truly dark, evil stuff is going on. Just the way the animals are handled is heartbreaking. There is no respect. The last time I saw such a thing was when a farmer picked up lamb by one hind leg to do something awful to him during a local walk.
Puppy Number 32 was different from the rest, she knew she was there to die.
Carlota had a very real sense of being watched and had to be super cautious at all times. She had to carry out 40 puppy euthanasias: “Something died in me that day.” When she was told that Number 32 was to be put to death, she asked her forgiveness. But she successfully applied to adopt her and Number 32 became Chess, safe and free from harm.
In her whole time there there was not one animal welfare inspection. She was haunted by the blood and the screaming. Rats, dogs and macaques were all just left to suffer. At one point a worker breaks a rabbit’s spine just for the hell of it and enjoys watching it in agony trying to make its way across the floor.
It turns out that the data from the experiments is routinely falsified anyway, adding to the utter futility of it all. One anti-tumour study, for example, produced no reliable evidence whatsoever.
Eventually it crushed Carlota. One day she broke down and cried, and cried, and cried. At that point only Chess stopped her from giving up.
In Germany, an undercover agent exposed the scandal of the abuse at a similar laboratory and the experiments were stopped. This put Carlota on even higher alert. She was inside for 544 days, after which she simply couldn’t take any more. What a sacrifice.
Then came COVID. Face masks made poor Chess extremely fearful. Carlota went back to being a vet where she was somewhat healed by helping to heal animals again. She sent hours of footage of extreme animal cruelty which prompted protests in Madrid. Then came the threats. The laboratory was suspended, but only for three months. Not a single animal was saved or rescued. A trial date has yet to be set. Only the workers were charged, not the people who run the company. After a while, media interest waned.
After all this, Carlota headed to MBR Acres, willing to go undercover again in spite of everything. It’s an evil place, also windowless, with razor wire and with seemingly endless row upon row of dogs. Animal Rising, involved with Camp Beagle, non-violent and accountable, broke in to MBR Acres so that at least some of them could be given the love they deserve.
Like the Camp Beagle protesters, Carlota will never give up. They will infiltrate and demonstrate for as long as it takes.
Until
the
last
cage
is
empty.
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