At a joint BUAV/Muslim Council of Britain event on extremism at this year Labour Party Conference in Manchester it was interesting to see certain elements of the animal rights movement vying for the limelight.

Both of these organisations - although they have supporters from very different backgrounds - have to deal with similar problems including how to tackle extremism amongst their members. Extremists in general share common views: they have an ideological world view, they strongly believe in conspiracy theories and they reject the democratic process of politics. And of course every extremist group is media aware and loves publicity stunts.

At the beginning of this particular meeting an animal rights activist - clad symbolically in a black cloak - disrupted proceedings by shouting ‘why should we stop direct action when we are so successful with it.’ Hmm … honest enough you may think but later I heard him defending privately the ‘shooting of Lord Sainsbury or Colin Blakemore’. This kind of direct action seems to imply a very particular brand of insight - BUAV is an organisation on their side!  BUAV and other animal rights organisations are desperate to repair the damage done to their image by detrimental acts by such extremist activists.