Mel Broughton
Encyclopedia
Mel Broughton is a British landscape gardener who has risen to public prominence as one of the UK's most notable animal rights
advocates. He was the co-founder in 2004, with Robert Cogswell, of SPEAK, The Voice for the Animals, a campaign to stop animal testing
in Britain, which is focused on opposition to a new animal laboratory at Oxford University.
Broughton was jailed for two years and eight months in 1999 after police found a firebomb in his car, which he said was intended to destroy animal transporter
s to stop the live export
of animals from the UK to the European continent. He was arrested again and remanded in custody in December 2007 after the Animal Liberation Front
planted incendiary devices in Oxford University colleges. A jury cleared him of possessing explosive substances, but failed to reach a verdict
on other charges. Following his retrial in 2009 he was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiracy to commit arson
. However, in March 2010 Mel Broughton had his conviction overturned, arguing that the DNA evidence in the case had been unrelibable. He was later granted bail with "stringent conditions" and was re-tried in June/July 2010.
On the 13th of July 2010 Broughton was once again found guilty and returned to prison to complete the balance of his sentence.
in Scotland when he was 15, living in a tent to guard osprey
nests. He later worked in animal sanctuaries, and campaigned against zoos, circuses, factory farming
, and live animal exports.
He lives in Northampton with Bella, a rescue dog, devoting most of his time to SPEAK. He told The Independent on Sunday:
Broughton was first arrested in 1988, when he and three other activists, including Barry Horne
— who died in 2001 during an animal-rights hunger strike — tried to remove Rocky, a bottlenose dolphin
, from a small concrete pool inside Marineland, in Morecambe
, Lancashire
. Rocky had been in the pool, mostly alone, for 17 years, after being captured off the coast of Florida in 1971.
Broughton and the others intended to move the dolphin, who weighed 650 lbs, 200 yards from the pool to the sea, using a ladder, a net, a home-made dolphin stretcher, and a hired Mini Metro. On the night of the action, they realized the logistics of the operation were beyond them, and decided to abandon their plans, but were arrested when the police found them with the dolphin stretcher in the back of the car. Broughton, Horne, Jim O'Donnell, and Jim Buckner were fined £500, while Broughton and Horne were also given six-month suspended sentences.
The management of Marineland eventually agreed to give Rocky to campaigners in response to Broughton and others picketing the facility, money that the activists raised with the help of the Born Free Foundation and the Mail on Sunday. In 1991, Rocky was transferred to a lagoon reserve in the Turks and Caicos Islands
, then released. Peter Hughes of the University of Sunderland
cites the campaign as an example of how promoting an animal rights perspective created a paradigm shift
toward seeing dolphins as individuals, as a result of which, he writes, there are now no captive dolphins in the UK.
Broughton told The Independent on Sunday that he took the chance to educate himself while in prison, studying philosophy and social sciences with the Open University
. "I found a lot of sympathy inside," he told the newspaper, "but a lot of the general prisoners found it very difficult to understand that I was inside for something I'd done for no personal gain."
Shortly thereafter, SPEAC learned that Oxford University planned to build a new animal research laboratory, including a non-human primate lab, in the university's science area. The activists said that talks between Oxford and Cambridge had resulted in Oxford agreeing to conduct the brain experiments that were lost with the abandonment of Cambridge's plans. SPEAC became SPEAK, The Voice for the Animals, relaunching itself as a campaign to halt all animal testing in the UK, with its second target the new Oxford lab, which opened in November 2008.
in February 2007. The Animal Liberation Front
claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Police arrested Broughton after finding a university employee's security pass and a notebook containing a list of targets for "direct action" under a carpet, and sparkler
s and a battery connector in an unused water tank at his house. The prosecution alleged that Broughton's DNA matched a sample found on the fuse on one of the petrol bombs.
Transcripts were submitted to the court during Broughton's trial of a recording in which Oxford police discussed a "dirty war" against Broughton, and how they were going to "get him." Broughton told the court that he was under constant police surveillance.
The jury was discharged in November 2008 after clearing Broughton of keeping an explosive substance with intent, but failing to reach verdicts on the other charges. Broughton was remanded in custody until his retrial in February 2009, whereupon he was found guilty of conspiracy to commit arson and sentenced to ten years by the Oxford Crown Court. Judge Patrick Eccles QC accused Broughton of being part of a "ruthless conspiracy" against the Oxford Biomedical Facility.
In March 2010, Mel Broughton had his conviction overturned due to the 'unsafe' way in which the trial judge summed up the conviction, with Broughton arguing the DNA evidence in the case had been unrelibable. He was later granted bail on "stringent conditions" that he does not engage in animal rights activities and enter Oxfordshire. He was re-tried in June 2010. On July 13, 2010 he was found guilty at the retrial, and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
for nearly 30 years. While in prison in 2001, he wrote:
Animal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
advocates. He was the co-founder in 2004, with Robert Cogswell, of SPEAK, The Voice for the Animals, a campaign to stop animal testing
Animal testing
Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and in vivo testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments. Worldwide it is estimated that the number of vertebrate animals—from zebrafish to non-human primates—ranges from the tens of millions to more than 100 million...
in Britain, which is focused on opposition to a new animal laboratory at Oxford University.
Broughton was jailed for two years and eight months in 1999 after police found a firebomb in his car, which he said was intended to destroy animal transporter
Animal transporter
Animal transporters are used to transport animals over long distances. They could be specially-modified vehicles, trailers, ships or aircraft containers. They are used to transport cattle or zoo needed animals, but sometimes they are sadly used to make ilegal exotic animal contranbandism hardly...
s to stop the live export
Live export
Live export is the transport of living farm animals usually across either state or national borders.Animal charities say that thousands of animals die en route from disease, heat exhaustion, thirst, suffocation, and crush injuries. The National Hog Farmer reports that 420,000 pigs are crippled and...
of animals from the UK to the European continent. He was arrested again and remanded in custody in December 2007 after the Animal Liberation Front
Animal Liberation Front
The Animal Liberation Front is an international, underground leaderless resistance that engages in illegal direct action in pursuit of animal liberation...
planted incendiary devices in Oxford University colleges. A jury cleared him of possessing explosive substances, but failed to reach a verdict
Hung jury
A hung jury or deadlocked jury is a jury that cannot, by the required voting threshold, agree upon a verdict after an extended period of deliberation and is unable to change its votes due to severe differences of opinion.- England and Wales :...
on other charges. Following his retrial in 2009 he was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiracy to commit arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
. However, in March 2010 Mel Broughton had his conviction overturned, arguing that the DNA evidence in the case had been unrelibable. He was later granted bail with "stringent conditions" and was re-tried in June/July 2010.
On the 13th of July 2010 Broughton was once again found guilty and returned to prison to complete the balance of his sentence.
Early life
Broughton's father is a former painter and decorator and his mother, Pauline, a care assistant in an old people's home. Both are committed animal rights advocates who work alongside Broughton on the SPEAK campaign. His mother, 70 years old at the time, was injured in September 2004 when a construction worker at Oxford University threw a white burning substance at her during an animal rights demonstration.Activism
Broughton has been involved in animal rights for over 30 years. He worked on Operation OspreyOperation Osprey
Operation Osprey was a plan conceived by the German Foreign Ministry and Abwehr II. mid 1942. The plan was an enlargement of Operation Whale...
in Scotland when he was 15, living in a tent to guard osprey
Osprey
The Osprey , sometimes known as the sea hawk or fish eagle, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey. It is a large raptor, reaching more than in length and across the wings...
nests. He later worked in animal sanctuaries, and campaigned against zoos, circuses, factory farming
Factory farming
Factory farming is a term referring to the process of raising livestock in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory — a practice typical in industrial farming by agribusinesses. The main products of this industry are meat, milk and eggs for human consumption...
, and live animal exports.
He lives in Northampton with Bella, a rescue dog, devoting most of his time to SPEAK. He told The Independent on Sunday:
This was always my life, but now it takes up so much of my life that it's very difficult. In fact survival is very, very hard. My flat's nothing special — two rooms — and I live as frugally as I possibly can to make sure I can campaign. I'm not trying to make myself out to be a martyr because this is my choice.
Rocky the dolphin
Barry Horne
Barry Horne was an English animal rights activist. He became known around the world in December 1998, when he engaged in a 68-day hunger strike in an effort to persuade the British government to hold a public inquiry into animal testing, something the Labour Party had said it would do before it...
— who died in 2001 during an animal-rights hunger strike — tried to remove Rocky, a bottlenose dolphin
Bottlenose Dolphin
Bottlenose dolphins, the genus Tursiops, are the most common and well-known members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Recent molecular studies show the genus contains two species, the common bottlenose dolphin and the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin , instead of one...
, from a small concrete pool inside Marineland, in Morecambe
Morecambe
Morecambe is a resort town and civil parish within the City of Lancaster in Lancashire, England. As of 2001 it has a resident population of 38,917. It faces into Morecambe Bay...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
. Rocky had been in the pool, mostly alone, for 17 years, after being captured off the coast of Florida in 1971.
Broughton and the others intended to move the dolphin, who weighed 650 lbs, 200 yards from the pool to the sea, using a ladder, a net, a home-made dolphin stretcher, and a hired Mini Metro. On the night of the action, they realized the logistics of the operation were beyond them, and decided to abandon their plans, but were arrested when the police found them with the dolphin stretcher in the back of the car. Broughton, Horne, Jim O'Donnell, and Jim Buckner were fined £500, while Broughton and Horne were also given six-month suspended sentences.
The management of Marineland eventually agreed to give Rocky to campaigners in response to Broughton and others picketing the facility, money that the activists raised with the help of the Born Free Foundation and the Mail on Sunday. In 1991, Rocky was transferred to a lagoon reserve in the Turks and Caicos Islands
Turks and Caicos Islands
The Turks and Caicos Islands are a British Overseas Territory and overseas territory of the European Union consisting of two groups of tropical islands in the Caribbean, the larger Caicos Islands and the smaller Turks Islands, known for tourism and as an offshore financial centre.The Turks and...
, then released. Peter Hughes of the University of Sunderland
University of Sunderland
The University of Sunderland is located in Sunderland, north east England. The university has more than 17,500 students, including 7,000-plus international students from some 70 countries....
cites the campaign as an example of how promoting an animal rights perspective created a paradigm shift
Paradigm shift
A Paradigm shift is, according to Thomas Kuhn in his influential book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions , a change in the basic assumptions, or paradigms, within the ruling theory of science...
toward seeing dolphins as individuals, as a result of which, he writes, there are now no captive dolphins in the UK.
1999 possession and conspiracy charges
Broughton was first jailed in 1999 after police found a bomb in the boot of his car. He was convicted of conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life. He was sentenced to four years, and released in June 2002 after serving two years and eight months.Broughton told The Independent on Sunday that he took the chance to educate himself while in prison, studying philosophy and social sciences with the Open University
Open University
The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...
. "I found a lot of sympathy inside," he told the newspaper, "but a lot of the general prisoners found it very difficult to understand that I was inside for something I'd done for no personal gain."
SPEAC and SPEAK campaigns
In July 2003, Broughton and Robert Cogswell set up a campaign to halt construction of a new non-human primate research facility at Cambridge University, the plans for which suggested it would be Europe's largest primate vivisection centre. The Stop Primate Experiments at Cambridge (SPEAC) campaign succeeded in persuading the university to abandon its plans in January 2004.Shortly thereafter, SPEAC learned that Oxford University planned to build a new animal research laboratory, including a non-human primate lab, in the university's science area. The activists said that talks between Oxford and Cambridge had resulted in Oxford agreeing to conduct the brain experiments that were lost with the abandonment of Cambridge's plans. SPEAC became SPEAK, The Voice for the Animals, relaunching itself as a campaign to halt all animal testing in the UK, with its second target the new Oxford lab, which opened in November 2008.
2009 conviction for conspiracy to commit arson
In connection with his role in the SPEAK campaign, Broughton was charged in December 2007 with conspiracy to blackmail and possession of incendiary devices after fire broke out inside a sports pavilion belonging to Queen's College, Oxford in November 2006, and two petrol bombs were found inside the university's Templeton CollegeTempleton College, Oxford
Templeton College was one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, England. It was an all-graduate college, concentrating on the recruitment of students in business and management studies....
in February 2007. The Animal Liberation Front
Animal Liberation Front
The Animal Liberation Front is an international, underground leaderless resistance that engages in illegal direct action in pursuit of animal liberation...
claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Police arrested Broughton after finding a university employee's security pass and a notebook containing a list of targets for "direct action" under a carpet, and sparkler
Sparkler
A sparkler is a type of hand-held firework that burns slowly while emitting colored flames, sparks, and other effects.In the United Kingdom, a sparkler is often used by children at bonfire and fireworks displays on Guy Fawkes Night, the fifth of November, and in the United States on Independence...
s and a battery connector in an unused water tank at his house. The prosecution alleged that Broughton's DNA matched a sample found on the fuse on one of the petrol bombs.
Transcripts were submitted to the court during Broughton's trial of a recording in which Oxford police discussed a "dirty war" against Broughton, and how they were going to "get him." Broughton told the court that he was under constant police surveillance.
The jury was discharged in November 2008 after clearing Broughton of keeping an explosive substance with intent, but failing to reach verdicts on the other charges. Broughton was remanded in custody until his retrial in February 2009, whereupon he was found guilty of conspiracy to commit arson and sentenced to ten years by the Oxford Crown Court. Judge Patrick Eccles QC accused Broughton of being part of a "ruthless conspiracy" against the Oxford Biomedical Facility.
In March 2010, Mel Broughton had his conviction overturned due to the 'unsafe' way in which the trial judge summed up the conviction, with Broughton arguing the DNA evidence in the case had been unrelibable. He was later granted bail on "stringent conditions" that he does not engage in animal rights activities and enter Oxfordshire. He was re-tried in June 2010. On July 13, 2010 he was found guilty at the retrial, and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
Veganism
Broughton has been a veganVeganism
Veganism is the practice of eliminating the use of animal products. Ethical vegans reject the commodity status of animals and the use of animal products for any purpose, while dietary vegans or strict vegetarians eliminate them from their diet only...
for nearly 30 years. While in prison in 2001, he wrote:
Being a vegan to me means the only logical choice to backing up my views on freeing non-human animals from the living hell we’ve inflicted on them. It is a statement about who I am, a person who rejects the way that we humans have come to see animals as only here to serve our own selfish purpose. It is also on a practical level a way of demonstrating to others that you can lead a happy and healthy life which does not require the suffering and death of animals. When breaking from vegetarianismVegetarianismVegetarianism encompasses the practice of following plant-based diets , with or without the inclusion of dairy products or eggs, and with the exclusion of meat...
to veganism nearly 22 years ago I remember thinking that I’d finally broken the chains that tied me to the exploitation of non-human animals.
I am a practical person who has always believed that words of sympathy are not enough when it comes to fighting for change. Veganism is practical animal liberation ... I’m very proud of being a vegan — not in a pious or self-righteous sense but because in a very real way I’m part of the most far-reaching revolution for change in human evolution.