The science journal Nature reports today that the ‘rash of vandalism, intimidation and arson across continental Europe in 2008 is evidence of a worrying new wave of animal-rights extremism being exported from Britain’.

The UK crackdown on animal rights extremism – many extremists have already been prosecuted or are in jail awaiting trial – has led to a string of serious incidents on continental Europe, where the laws against such activity are worryingly lax.

However, in the Nature piece, the activist group SPEAK, which campaigns against the new Oxford University biomedical research centre (Nature, please note, this is not a primate research centre), denied all knowledge of British activism abroad. They should perhaps take a look at the website of their fellow UK activist group, SHAC, where the evidence is plain to see.

In the Netherlands at least, the government now appears to be taking animal rights extremism more seriously. On 12 February, the Dutch parliament passed a motion supporting the use of animals in research and condemning extremism.

Interestingly, the comments which follow the Nature piece seem to be largely supportive of extremism. This is not a true reflection of public opinion, and suggests some networking by SPEAK in advance of publication of this news article!