Anyone can hang out at the Oxford University chat forum, where students debate the issues of the day. Last time I looked it had around 1,000 posts in several threads about animal research and animal rights extremism. This debate seems to have been prompted by the upcoming student-led Pro-Test in favour of the University research centre currently under construction. As you might expect from this premier seat of learning, the discussion is mostly articulate, well-informed and fair-minded. Light relief comes in the form of wit, banter and expletives. From the students, that is.

A handful of animal rights activists are involved, presumably trying to change the views of most students who can see the need for animal research. The activists aren’t doing themselves any favours. One, a “former marine” who calls himself “Britches”, doesn’t seem to have grasped even the first principles of debate. He had posted no less than 200 times when he said:

I myself do not care what the majority of students at Oxford University think. Anyone who is for the lab and is a student at Oxford are only shit on the bottom of my shoe. Just a dirty mess you wipe off. “Britches", 13 February 2006

I wonder why he’s wasting his time there, then?