The Mouse That Roared

Within a few hours of Tuesday's announcement that Darley Oaks Farm would stop breeding guinea pigs for experimentation, the website of Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs posted a triumphant statement.

"This victorious day stands as a testament to the power of animal rights activism, an unprecedented accumulation of ideas and actions that will never cease to amaze those who are part of it and will NEVER cease to target the abusers!" the statement said.

Fifteen years ago, it would have been unthinkable that such an organisation could broadcast its message so widely and so quickly, but the internet has given a new platform to campaigners.

Those on the receiving end of violent anti-vivisection campaigns are in little doubt that new technology has made life easier for activists.

"If you go back 10 years, direct action was just a few people outside about 50 sites in the country," one person involved in animal research - who did not wish to be named for fear of reprisals - said.

"The only way they could pull a campaign together was by sending out newsletters, which are a pain to produce. With the rise of the internet, a global campaign can be run by one person in his bedroom."

The internet also makes it easier to research links between businesses, facilitating the sort of campaigning that led to the construction company Montpellier pulling out of construction of a new animal research facility in Oxford last year.

Letters were sent to Montpellier shareholders, threatening that they would be the victims of "action" if they did not sell their shares in the company.

A spokesman for Nectu, the police task force that investigates animal liberation extremism, said even relatively benign emails had been able to change the policies of companies.

"Because of the reputation of animal rights extremists, all it takes is a fairly polite email to get results," he said. "They can send on email lists and send a huge number of emails to an individual. The most relatively unthreatening of them have often achieved their objectives."

A number of sites such as Arkangel, providing news and updates about ongoing campaigns, are central to the organisation of anti-vivisection campaigns are a number of sites such as Arkangel, which provide news and updates about ongoing campaigns.

Some of them refer unashamedly to intimidation campaigns, but others - such as the animal rights calendar, compiled by the Veggies Catering Campaign - give more benign listings of upcoming events.

Greg Avery, a spokesman for Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, said Shac had no intention of threatening people.

"Look at our website ... where is the intimidation? We've received instructions from a QC about what we can write up there, and there's nothing that's against the law," he said.

Shac's site gives information about demonstrations against the drugs companies Roche and Novartis in Switzerland and against Wall Street businesses connected to Huntingdon Life Sciences in New York, but Mr Avery stressed that the internet was only one tool among many.

"The thing that shifts those companies is demonstrations. While the internet is a very useful tool, it's not the most important tool," he says.

Although police monitor animal liberation websites, the Nectu spokesman said they have rarely received breakthrough information from the net.

"Extremists aren't going to get caught by using the internet," he said. "There's no doubt that criminal activity is at times organised using email, but there's two sides to it: these activists that are committed and aware of IT security go to great lengths to cover their tracks."