Monday 22 May 2000

By Thomas Harding

ANIMAL rights arsonists made a concerted attack on a meat factory yesterday, planting 10 firebombs under lorries. One device went off, destroying an £80,000 refrigerated vehicle at the plant in a residential area on the outskirts of Witney, Oxon. Flames shot high into the sky soon after midnight. The device had been planted under the lorry's fuel tank, police said.

Firemen found other bombs in the lorry park at Mutchmeats Ltd and Army bomb disposal experts defused them. No one was injured. The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) claimed responsibility for the attack.

It said that the invisible costs would be much higher than that of the lorry. Robin Webb, the front's spokesman, said: "The meat industry is the largest area of animal abuse and that is why it is targeted. They kill hundreds of millions of animals every year.

"The aim is to put them out of business by economic sabotage, forcing higher insurance premiums, and to make firms invest more in security. During 1991-1992 more than 100 lorries were destroyed at a cost of £5.5 million but with an invisible cost of £500 million."

Last August the ALF destroyed 19 lorries at Unigate Dairies, Oxford, and four lorries in Banbury. Yesterday it broke into a rabbit vivisection suppliers in Great Bookham, Surrey, freeing seven animals.