Originally from Chaska, Minnesota, Atwood is a former arts promoter with a postgraduate degree in business management from New York University. He has a number of animal rights-related convictions, including criminal damage. [1]
Atwood is also allegedly involved in the SPEAK campaign to stop the construction by Oxford University of a new animal-testing laboratory, believed by animal-rights activists to include plans for a new primate facility. According to The Sunday Times, he has sent out e-mails naming Oxford academics who are targets of the animal rights movement, including Colin Blakemore, head of the British Medical Research Council. [1]