Nearly 30 builders and decorators in the UK have received threatening letters from the Animal Liberation Front because they are working for Oxford University and Oxford is building new research laboratories in which animal testing will be carried out. Work for the university will be done "at your peril", says the letter. Police and the university are taking the threat seriously as there have already been arson and bomb attacks.

The activists are following a successful policy targeting people and groups who have nothing to do with the research in order to intimidate their primary target, the University. The research buildings are only half completed at the moment because a contractor pulled out after its shareholders were threatened.