Licensee quits over animal rights row
A licensee has quit his pub after refusing to give in to a hate campaign from animal rights campaigners.
Keith Marklew, who runs the Red Lion in Newborough, Staffordshire, fell victim to attacks from protestors earlier this year, as reported by The Publican.
He had allowed the family owners of nearby David Hall and Associates, based at Darley Oaks Farm, to drink in his pub but activists discovered the farm was breeding guinea pigs for medical research.
They subsequently targeted the Red Lion, smashing windows and making threatening phone calls.
Mr Marklew refused to let the behaviour dictate who used his pub and continued to serve the Hall family, but as the situation worsened he was forced to move away.
Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries' tenanted arm, the Union Pub Company, owns the pub and had written to the Halls in March asking them to stay away from the pub until the situation eased.
Managing director Stephen Oliver, said: "Reports that we have now barred the customer concerned are not true, we don't have the power as it was a tenanted pub. Nor did we put pressure on Mr Marklew to leave the Red Lion.
"It was a very unfortunate situation and we don't like being put in this position, but we have to look at the bigger picture and consider the threat to our staff from these people."
Police recently made 11 arrests during a protest by 200 animal rights activists at the farm.
Related articles:
Animal liberationists target pubcos (4 March 2004)
