Barry Horne


 * ''For the Welsh footballer see Barry Horne (footballer)

Barry Horne (1952–November 5, 2001) was a British animal rights activist who died of liver failure in Ronkswood Hospital, Worcester in November 2001, following a series of four hunger strikes while serving an 18-year sentence for planting incendiary devices. Horne said his aim was to persuade the British government to hold a public inquiry into animal-testing practices in the UK, something the Labour Party had promised to do when it came to power in 1997.

At the time of his death at the age of 49, Horne had not eaten for 15 days, but he was already weakened by previous hunger strikes, the longest of which had lasted 68 days and had left him partially blind with kidney damage. At Horne's funeral, animal rights activists, many of whom regarded Horne as a hero, unveiled a banner with the words: "Labour lied, Barry died".

The media reaction to his campaign and death was hostile. Kevin Toolis wrote in The Guardian: "In life he was a nobody, a failed dustman turned firebomber. But in death Barry Horne will rise up as the first true martyr of the most successful terrorist group Britain has ever known, the animal rights movement."

Background
A former waste collector from Northampton, and divorced with a young child, Horne came to public attention in the 1980s, following an attempt to rescue "Rocky," a bottlenose dolphin kept in a small concrete pool at Marineland, in Morecambe, Lancashire, for which he received a six-month suspended jail term.

He began what newspapers called a fire-bombing campaign in the early 1990s, causing damage estimated at £3 million in 1994 when he destroyed a branch of Boots the Chemists in Newport on the Isle of Wight, because of the company's testing of its products on animals. He also set fire to department stores on the island that sold fur coats, and was eventually caught by police with further incendiary devices in his pocket.

Horne was convicted of six charges of arson and attempted arson at Bristol Crown Court in December 1997. Although no one was hurt during Horne's campaign, the court heard that Horne had left devices hidden in products sold in the stores he had targeted. One woman had purchased a leather handbag containing one of the devices, but failed to discover it until four months later after she had allegedly allowed her children to play with it. 

While the court accepted that Horne had not intended to kill or injure anyone, the judge nevertheless described him as an "urban terrorist" and handed down an 18-year sentence, the longest given to any animal-rights protester in the UK. 

First two hunger strikes
On January 6, 1997, six months after being jailed on remand, before his trial, Horne announced that he would refuse all food unless John Major's Conservative government pledged to withdraw its support for animal testing within five years. Because Labour was regarded as likely to win the next general election, due to be held in May 1997, Horne ended his action on February 9 after 35 days, when Elliot Morley, then Labour animal welfare spokesperson, wrote that "Labour is committed to a reduction and an eventual end to vivisection." 

The hunger strike sparked an increase in animal-rights activism, including the removal of cats from Hillgrove Farm in Oxfordshire, which bred cats for laboratories; damage to Harlan breeding center and the removal of beagles from Consort Kennels; the destruction of seven lorries at Buxted poultry plant in Northamptonshire; a blockade of the port of Dover and heavy damage to a McDonalds in the town; and the removal of rabbits being bred for vivisection in Homestead Farm. 

The second hunger strike began on August 11, 1997 and ended 46 days later on September 26, when Lord Williams of Mostyn, then a Home Office minister and later Attorney-General, contacted Horne's supporters with an offer of talks between them and the government.

Horne's aim during the second hunger strike was that the new Labour government withdraw all animal testing licences within an agreed timeframe. There was another increase in animal-rights activism in support of Horne. On September 12, 1997, protests were held in London and Southampton in the UK, in The Hague, in Cleveland, Ohio, and at Umeå University in Sweden, where activists tried to storm the labs.

Horne's trial began on November 12, 1997, six weeks after the end of the strike, at Bristol Crown Court. He pleaded guilty to attempted arson in Bristol, but denied involvement in the earlier Isle of Wight attacks. Although there was no direct evidence to link Horne to the Isle of Wight, which had caused £3 million worth of damage, the prosecution argued successfully that the devices used in Bristol and the Isle of Wight were so similar that Horne should be regarded as responsible for both.

Three weeks later, on December 5, 1997, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison, the longest sentence ever handed out to an animal rights activist. 

The 68-day hunger strike
Horne's longest hunger strike began on October 6, 1998 and ended 68 days later on December 13. It brought the issue of animal experimentation to the forefront of British politics, with his deteriorating condition making headlines around the world, as activists threatened further disruption should he die, with some issuing death threats against several scientists.

The Labour government publicly refused to give in to what it called blackmail, and said it would not negotiate with Horne or his supporters, but privately, it held talks with them. Horne's MP, Tony Clarke, visited Barry in prison on November 12 to negotiate another meeting between Horne's supporters and the Home Office, which took place on November 19, 44 days into the strike. After the meeting, Horne released a statement saying there was nothing new on offer, and that his hunger strike would continue. He then reduced his demands to asking for a Royal Commission on animal testing, which the Labour Party had indicated that it would hold if elected.

During the 68 days, groups of animal-rights protesters kept vigil outside the hospital in York where Horne was taken, and opposite the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, holding candles, placards, and photographs of Horne. At times, the group was joined by Alan Clark, the flamboyant right-wing Conservative MP, historian, political diarist, and animal-rights supporter; the only Member of Parliament to offer the movement any public support during the protest.

On November 24, at the state opening of Parliament, activists dropped a banner in support of Horne in front of the Queen's official car as it drove towards the Houses of Parliament. Shortly after this, two activists parked a car at the end of Downing Street, slashed its tires, and used D-Locks to attach themselves by the neck to the steering wheel, while protesters demonstrated nearby.

Death threats
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 Robin Webb, press officer of the Animal Liberation Front, threatening to assassinate four named individuals should Horne die: Colin Blakemore, a controversial British scientist and now chief executive of the Medical Research Council who was targeted for research he was doing that involved sewing kittens' eyes shut at birth to study blindness in children and find ways to treat it; 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 kittens for animal-testing purposes. 

Those on the ARM's list and other scientists were given police protection, and Special Branch stepped up its surveillance of activists, and in particular of Robin Webb.

Robin Webb and Channel 4
As Horne approached his 60th day without food, footage shot by an independent production company was shown on the Channel 4 Dispatches programme. The film makers had secretly filmed Robin Webb, the ALF's UK press officer, holding meetings with an individual who told Webb he wanted to arrange a bombing, but who in fact was working undercover for the production team. In the footage, Webb appeared to offer advice on how to make a bomb.

When Channel 4 aired the documentary, Webb's apparent willingness to discuss violent action caused the Animal Liberation Front, which supports only non-violent action, to be firmly linked in the public mind with the Animal Rights Militia, which had just issued the death threats against scientists if Horne should die.

End of the hunger strike
Despite the government's refusal to negotiate with Horne or his supporters, a Labour MP who said he was acting independently of the government arranged for Michael Banner, the chair of the Animal Procedures Committee, to agree to attend a meeting with Ian Cawsey, head of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Animal Welfare, to discuss animal-testing practices. This was interpreted by Horne as a concession on the part of the government, and he agreed to start eating again on December 13, 1998.

Although he was left partially blind with serious kidney and liver damage, opponents accused him of having engaged in a fraud, saying he had been drinking orange juice and water with sugar during the 68 days.

His health continued to deteriorate and he died three years later of liver failure. He was buried in his home town of Northampton. Hundreds of people attended the pagan service and accompanied the coffin through the town. After his death the South London punk group Inner Terrestrials wrote a song with his name in the title as a tribute to his memory.

Letter bomb link
In February 2007, one of a spate of letter bombs sent to a number of companies had a reference to Horne on the back. The police believe that this may mean that the bombs are linked to "animal rights extremists". 

A self-proclaimed 'friend' of Horne appeared on the BBC Radio 4 programme Today, to counter the idea that these letter bombs would in any way be approved of by Horne.