TERRORISTS believed to be from the Animal Liberation Front have effectively declared war with Oxford University over the building of a biomedical research facility which, among other things, would conduct medical research on animals.

The terrorists have shown that anything connected with the university is now a target by orchestr-ating the burning of Hertford College’s boathouse on July 4, 2005, causing damages in excess of half a million pounds. Twenty-six boats, many blades, as well as expensive training equipment were lost in the fire. A second attempt at arson aimed at a sports pavilion owned by Corpus Christi College failed.

A statement was released in an online magazine which declared “From here on nothing you own, rent or have dealings with is off limits until the project is scrapped.” (It is unknown whether the abs-ence of the Oxford comma between ‘rent’ and ‘or’ was intentional). The project which the statement referred to is the £18m facility planned by Oxford University for biomeedical research, announced in January of last year.

The Oxford Student newspaper spoke to a source from the Animal Liberation Front which alluded to futher possible actions by the terror group against the University. They varied from “smashing windows with rocks to arson attacks against entire departments.” Letters were sent to every shareholder of Montpellier Construction, the firm contracted to build the facility, warning that their personal information would be published online so individual extremist cells could target the share-holders and their families at will. Within months, the company had pulled out of the project, and similar letters have been sent to every other group involved in the building of the facility. Members of the University questioned the wisdom of siting the facility on a busy main road, making it harder to protect from fringe animal rights groups.

A short statement released by the Hertford College Boat Club pointed out that “this malicious act was aimed at admonishing Oxford University, but in fact all financial burden belongs to the student-run boat clubs that share the facility.” While owned by Hertford College, the house is also used by St. Catharine’s, St. Hilda’s, Mansfield, and St. Benet’s, as well as being home to privately-owned shells and the gondolas of Oxford’s City Barge Club.

Another Oxford student paper, Cherwell, has hinted that the Crown Prosecution Service may invoke the Terrorism Act 2000, designed for handling the threats of Irish and Islamic terror, against those involved in the Oxford attacks and any similar attacks that may occur in the future.

While both Hertford College, which owns the property, and the other individual boat clubs which own equipment there are covered by fire insurance, additional funds may be necessary to help the boat clubs along their way. Contacts for the Hertford College Boat Club can be found at www.hcbc.co.uk for those willing to make a donation.