They should be careful with their beating up though....this was in the News yesterday:
Seven animal rights activists who intimidated customers of Huntingdon Life Sciences by blackmailing them have been jailed in the UK for between four and 11 years.
[.......]
Sentencing the seven, Mr Justice Butterfield called the campaign "urban terrorism" and a "relentless, sustained and merciless persecution" that had made the victims' lives "a living hell". The judge said he accepted that the seven had genuine deeply held beliefs that animal testing was wrong, and had the right to protest, but told the activists that companies "had the right to conduct vital biomedical research" and "the right to conduct lawful trading".
The judge added that "I expect you will be seen by some as martyrs for a noble cause but that would be misplaced," he told the seven. "You are not going to prison for expressing your beliefs, you are going to prison because you have committed a serious criminal offence," he concluded.
