In 1981 , Alex Pacheco exposed illicit research on Macaque monkeys in Edward Taub 's laboratory in Silver Spring , Maryland . Police raided the research facility , and the raid was televised , attracting publicity to antivivisectionists ' claims . In the UK in 1990 , Mike Huskisson and Melody McDonald videotaped Wilhelm Feldberg performing illegal research ; the video evidence was made public and Feldberg 's lab was summarily closed down . SHAC was founded after Zoe Broughton conducted undercover surveillance of vivisectionists and discovered evidence of nonhuman animal abuse . Footage and images from undercover surveillance activity are often circulated offline and on the Internet and used to deliver a moral shock that will mobilize viewers to participate in the movement . Members in the abolitionist faction , specifically those in Francione 's camp , argue that the graphic depictions of suffering discovered in undercover work result in a focus on treatment , as opposed to use , and that this focus , while useful in securing welfare reform , is counterproductive to abolishing animal exploitation
Silver Spring
Silver Spring monkeys
Animal rights movement