ANIMALS PROTEST MOVES TO OIL DEPOT; NO ARRESTS OVER BANNER DEMO.

Byline: EMMA GUNBY

ANIMAL rights activists held a peaceful protest at a Liverpool fuel depot to campaign against animal cruelty.

Demonstrators from the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty group waved banners outside the Shell fuel depot at Gillmoss Industrial Estate on the East Lancs Road yesterday.

It was one of 20 gatherings across the country against oil giants Shell.

The five-hour protest was over Shell's involvement with animal experiments at the controversial Huntingdon Life Sciences laboratory in Cambridge.

Sarah Hill, 38, from Aigburth, said they were encouraged by the amount of support from passers-by.

She said: "It was a banner protest. We didn't try to block the road or anything, as most of us are on bail for the recent Stanlow demonstration.

"There were probably more police than protesters and they had overreacted as usual by calling in the police helicopter and several riot vans. Hopefully Shell will get a fair few complaints and people will start boycotting their petrol stations until they pull out of Huntingdon."

A Merseyside police spokeswoman confirmed the demonstration passed peacefully and there were no arrests.

Last month nine campaigners were arrested and charged with obstruction after a demonstration outside the Shell oil refinery in Ellesmere Port.

A spokeswoman for Shell said:

"Shell recognises the dilemma we all face about tests of this kind. But we have to balance this with the need to ensure our products conform to regulations established to protect human and environmental health.

"This sometimes requires data from animal testing. The numbers used are minimised as far as possible, but it is sometimes the only way to ensure the safety of our products."

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PROTEST: Outside the Shell depot Picture: TRACEY O'NEILL