LONDON -- Militant animal rights activists who claimed they injected rat poison into some of Britain's best-selling candy bars said today it was a hoax to hit the confectionery company's business.
'None of the Mars Bars were ever injected with poison,' said Ronnie Lee, a spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front as Britain's shopkeepers checked through an estimated 10 million of the candy bars.
The scare was intended to clear Mars bars from the shops as part of the Animal Liberation Front's campaign to cause 'economic loss and sabotage to companies which are involved in cruelty to animals,' Lee said in a television interview.
'We would like to speak to this man,' a Scotland Yard spokesman said. He would not discuss grounds for possible charges against the ALF.
The ALF sprang the hoax because Mars UK Ltd. was financing medical research into tooth decay using monkeys that were force-fed on sugar-rich diets, Lee said.
'Why should monkeys suffer because too many people eat sweets?' he said.
Scotland Yard said suspect candy bars turned up on six cities since the scare began Saturday night but there was no evidence of poisoning.
The National Poison Center said one Mars bar spiked with rat poison available over the counter would not kill, 'but it could make someone unwell.'
Several people ate suspect bars but none had suffered any ill effects, Scotland Yard said Sunday.
'These people are lunatics. This sort of thing is highly dangerous,' said an angry Michael Phippen, who discovered a note in his candy bar after his wife and 14-year-old daughter, Chantelle, had eaten theirs Saturday.
'Chantelle was absolutely petrified and just stood there waiting for something to happen to her,' said Phippen's wife. 'These animal campaigners are fools.'
Shopkeepers across Britain began checking the candy Sunday and a Mars bar spokesman said every bar would be removed from display and checked for tampering -- an estimated 10 million in all. He said candy bars would be withdrawn and replaced 'at once' if there was 'any sign whatsoever that they have been tampered with.'
About 3 million Mars bars are sold in Britain every day.
The Animal Liberation Front said it spiked the candy bars with rat poison to protest medical experiments on monkeys that the Mars company helped to finance at Guy's Hospital in London.
The monkeys are force-fed high-sugar diets in experiments to combat tooth decay, the group claims. Mars UK Ltd. confirmed it gives the hospital a $31,250 annual grant.
'It beggars belief that these people are prepared to sacrifice children on the altar of their fanaticism,' said David Mellor, a Home Office minister responsible for animal experimentation.
'These extremists can no longer be dismissed as loonies who are best ignored. They are dangerous and must be stopped before someone is severely injured or even killed.'
The Animal Liberation Front, founded in 1976, poured bleach in bottles of shampoo in July to protest cosmetic research on animals.
In recent weeks, the front has claimed responsibility for breaking into a mink farm to release animals and freeing a wolf from a private zoo.