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Robin Webb is press officer for the Animal Liberation Front in the UK. He was previously a member of the ruling council of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), and a director of Animal Aid.

In 1991, the Animal Liberation Front Supporters Group (ALFSG), which exists to offer moral and financial support to jailed activists, stopped speaking on behalf of the ALF because of constant police attention, and a decision was made to create the role of press officer as a separate office. Webb says he was chosen for the role because he had a respectable image. He has said his policy is "never to criticize any action, whatever it may be, so long as it has been undertaken with the sincere intention of furthering animal liberation." This has led to the criticism that Webb has appeared to condone acts of violence, despite the ALF's stated aim of engaging in only non-violent direct action.

Controversy

Template:Animal liberation movement Webb attracted controversy in 1998 during the 68-day hunger strike of British ALF activist Barry Horne, who stopped eating in protest at the British government's failure to hold a public inquiry into animal testing in the UK, something the Labour Party had indicated it would do before coming to power in 1997.

Toward the end of the hunger strike, when it appeared that Horne might die, the Animal Rights Militia (ARM), an extremist animal-rights group, issued a statement through Webb, threatening to assassinate six unnamed and four named individuals should Horne die: Colin Blakemore, a controversial British scientist and now chief executive of the Medical Research Council who came to public attention in the 1980s for sewing kittens' eyes shut at birth while researching blindness; Clive Page of King's College London, a professor of pulmonary pharmacology and now chair of the animal science group of the British Biosciences Federation; Mark Matfield of the Research Defence Society; and Christopher Brown, the owner of Hillgrove Farm in Oxfordshire, who at the time was breeding cats for animal-testing purposes. As a result of the threats, Special Branch stepped up its surveillance of activists, and in particular of Robin Webb.

Shortly after this, footage shot by an independent production company was shown on the Channel 4 Dispatches program in the UK. The film makers had secretly filmed Webb holding meetings with an individual who told Webb he wanted to arrange a bombing, but who was working undercover for the production team. In the footage, Webb appeared to offer advice on how to make a bomb.

The footage had been shot before the Animal Rights Militia had issued its threat against the scientists, and there was no suggestion that Webb was himself engaged in violent action, but when Channel 4 aired the documentary, his apparent willingness to discuss a bombing caused the Animal Liberation Front to be firmly linked in the public mind with the Animal Rights Militia.

Webb himself appeared to link the two, together with a third animal-rights group known for violence, the Justice Department, when in an interview with No Compromise, the animal-liberation magazine, he said that any vegetarian or vegan who carries out an action that falls within the ALF's three stated aims may claim that action on behalf of the ALF.

He then added: "And if someone wishes to act as the Animal Rights Militia or the Justice Department? Simply put, the third policy of the ALF no longer applies."

In 2003, Webb was convicted of criminal trespass in New Jersey and allowed to leave the United States. He is on record as supporting violent action against companies doing animal research, and stating that even children of researchers are legitimate targets of protest:

"Robin Webb of the ALF told the Sunday Herald that the core of people willing to take direct action was growing. “There are about 2000 people prepared at any one time to take action for us – more legislation will simply push moderate people to the extremes of the organisation,” he said.

He rejects the notion that the families of scientists and researchers should not be targets.

“Some say it is morally unacceptable but it is equally unacceptable to use animals in experiments. The children of those scientists are enjoying a lifestyle built on the blood and abuse of innocent animals. Why should they be allowed to close the door on that and sit down and watch TV and enjoy themselves when animals are suffering and dying because of the actions of the family breadwinner? They are a justifiable target for protest.”

Webb told the Sunday Herald that protests would escalate in the coming months.

“When you look at other struggles, there comes a point where non-violent action no longer works. If activists become fed up with non-violent protest then they will take another road and adopt an armed struggle. When you have right on your side, it’s easy to keep going. It really is.” "

See also

• Animal Liberation Front
• Animal Liberation Front Supporters Group
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
• Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
• Barry Horne
• Animal rights
• Animal testing
• Vivisection
• GANDALF trial
• Rod Coronado
• Steven Best
• Keith Mann
• David Barbarash

References

"Staying on Target and Going the Distance: An Interview with U.K. A.L.F. Press Officer Robin Webb", No Compromise, Issue 22, undated

• Animal rights activists
• Animal Liberation Front
• Living people
• Animal liberation movement