Animal rights protestor John Curtin was back at Camp Beagle in the early hours of today after his release from custody by Cambridgeshire Police.
Throughout the day supporters of the campaign to ban beagles from animal research at the MBR Acres site at Wyton had been outside Thorpe Wood police station where he had been detained.
Mr Curtin emerged to cheers and said he had not been charged.
He described it as an “eventful day” and said he had been advised to offer ‘no comment’ throughout.
However, he said he did break his silence when challenged about his use of a megaphone, telling officers “I am a protestor, I use a megaphone every day”.
Mr Curtin said he was part of a peaceful campaign and says his arrest had been under laws designed to prevent terrorism and serious and organised crime.
“The whole world is looking at our peaceful protest and is horrified,” he said.
Mr Curtin said he was surprised to have been arrested as he had acted throughout much of the 70 days he had been at the camp as police liaison with the protestors.
He had been released without charge “on police bail” but said he would ignore any instruction not to enter Cambridgeshire.
“I live in Cambridgeshire,” he said.
Mr Curtin said he felt the police had been trying to “isolate and criminalise us – we are not. We are not criminals.”
He said the protest would continue “till we free the beagles – we need a massive investigation into vivisection”.
Earlier in the day a police spokesperson had confirmed that “a 59-year-old man from Coventry was arrested this morning (September 15) on suspicion of intimidation, believed to have taken place at the MBR Acres site on Monday.
“He remains in custody at Thorpe Wood Police Station in Peterborough.”
Camp Beagle meanwhile continues to attract financial support to maintain it.
A fund-raising campaign with a goal of £10,000 has now raised £7,000.
Organiser Mol Adams said she had begun the fund-raising effort “to stop the breeding of puppies in mass numbers at the MBR Acres Puppy Farm”.
"The conditions inside the facility are not the subject of protest,” she said.
“It is the fact that puppies here are bred indoors, never see daylight, and then at 16 weeks old are shipped off in vans to be used in toxicology (poisoning) tests in labs where they will die.
“We maintain that the people whom work here surely cannot care for or own animals, otherwise they would not be working at a facility dedicated to factory farming puppies to be ultimately murdered in labs.”
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