A wildlife presenter says she was told to attend a “thinking skills course” after police visited her over a social media post.
Anneka Svenska, 52, said she was left “shaking” when two officers came to her home near Royal Tunbridge Wells in Kent in June, an encounter she described as an attack on free speech.
The animal rights campaigner was informed that a complaint had been made about a video she posted online in January, in which she criticised a beagle testing facility over the way it disposes of dead animals.
A male officer identified the company as MBR Acres, based in Wyton, Cambridgeshire, and said the business had accused Ms Svenska of “making false allegations”.
MBR Acres is the only site in the UK that breeds dogs for the animal testing industry.
Ms Svenska was then asked if she would agree to a “community resolution”, a police measure used for “low-level offences”, under which she would be required to complete two online courses within a fortnight: “thinking skills” and “impact of crime”.
However, after seeking legal advice, Ms Svenska declined to sign the document, seen by the Daily Mail, which said she would be recorded as an “offender” and that the matter could be disclosed in DBS checks.
She maintained that her claims were accurate and had been checked before she published the post.
The police dropped the case, and no further action was taken.
Wildlife presenter Anneka Svenska, 52, was left ‘shaking’ when two police officers confronted her at her home over a social media post
Officers told Ms Svenska that a complaint had been made about her by MBR Acres after she posted a video online criticising the beagle testing site
‘It’s rather frightening that a company can make a complaint about somebody like me and have two officers turn up on my doorstep like that,’ she said.
MBR Acres, which is owned by Marshall BioResources, reportedly breeds about 2,000 beagles a year for universities and private laboratories around the world for experimental research.
‘Police should be out catching violent criminals, burglars and stalkers,’ she said in a video posted on X to highlight her case.
‘Not knocking on the doors of peaceful campaigners. I once reported a stalker and nothing happened. Yet officers were sent to my house after a complaint from a company.’
Ms Svenska, who hosts the Animal Watch series on her YouTube, said she was ‘genuinely worried about where this is heading’ and that ‘this insanity has to end’.
She warned campaigners to get legal advice and not to sign a form if police turn up at their door and offer them a community resolution.
Ms Svenska added: ‘If campaigners can face police intervention after speaking out about one of Britain’s most controversial animal industries, where does that leave freedom of expression on animal welfare? Or indeed freedom of expression on the whole?
‘This is about far more than me. It’s about whether people can peacefully question industries that many members of the public find ethically troubling.
‘The UK is a nation of dog lovers and almost everyone I know has a dog. It’s abhorrent to think that there are thousands of dogs living parallel lives to our pets right now, undergoing painful, brutal tests while our own dogs are treated like our own children.’
She told The Telegraph: ‘I was definitely intimidated by the police; I was actually shaking underneath. This, to me, was an absolute violation.’
Lord Young, the general secretary of the Free Speech Union, said: ‘The Online Safety Act was proposed as a way of keeping children safe online.
‘Instead, overzealous police officers are using it to spare large companies the blushes of criticism from campaigners. Thankfully, Anneka had the good sense to reject this community disposal.
‘Otherwise, she would have been saddled with this record for doing nothing more than exercising her democratic rights to free speech.’
A host of celebrities such as Amanda Holden, Dame Joanna Lumley and Jonathan Ross earlier this year backed calls for MBR to shut down.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood was sent a letter signed by them as well as cross-party MPs and peers and animal organisations such as Animal Rising and Peta.
Others adding their name to the letter include the BBC’s Springwatch presenter Chris Packham, Made In Chelsea’s Lucy Watson and ex-Blue Peter host Gail Porter.
MBR is permitted to breed animals for animal testing and research, prompting opponents to have set up a protest outside dubbed ‘Camp Beagle’, since 2021.
Activists said the site’s operator MBR Acres is licensed to bleed healthy dogs to death, by directly inserting needles into their heart and surrounding blood vessels, while also able to harvest their organs.
Animal rights activists have previously filmed inside the MBR Acres beagle testing facility in Wyton
Dog lover Will Young chained himself to fencing outside the research centre in November 2021
Police and protesters clash at the MBR Acres-adjacent Camp Beagle in 2021
Ms Svenska has previously campaigned alongside Star Wars’ Carrie Fisher to stop the annual Yulin dog and cat eating festival in China.
In 2016, she made headlines when she attended the Royal Ascot wearing the largest hat in the event’s history to campaign against horse deaths in horse racing.
Previous celebrity opposition to MBR included singer Will Young handcuffing himself to a gate there in a one-man protest in November 2021.
And in July 2021, actor Ricky Gervais called for an ‘immediate ban’ on the testing site, telling The Times: ‘These experiments are now proven to entirely fail the search for human treatments and cures.
‘We need an immediate ban on this shocking animal cruelty, which is clearly holding back medical progress.’
The Daily Mail has contacted Sussex Police, Cambridge Constabulary, and MBR Acres’ parent company Marshall BioResources for comment.
