Legal & General (LGEN.L) has become the latest financial services company to be targeted by animal rights protestors.

The insurance group saw protestors distributing flyers printed by Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty outside its City offices earlier today.

One flyer claimed the group were campaigning against FTSE 100-listed pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca - a priority target for the group - for its use of Huntingdon Life Sciences.

A spokeswoman was unable to confirm whether AstraZeneca was a current customer of Huntingdon Life Sciences.

On AstraZeneca's corporate website, the company 'acknowledges the right of every individual to express their views on the use of animals in research but we condemn the use of violence and other illegal acts'.

It adds, 'We operate in accordance with all applicable laws worldwide in the conduct of our research and firmly reject any harassment, intimidation or harming of our employees or those of our suppliers, or their families, as totally unacceptable.'

The Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty group has called on AstraZeneca to stop contracting the Cambridgshire-based company, which uses animals for research purposes.

Legal & General declined to comment on the protests, which were attended by police and saw several security guards placed outside of the group's London headquarters.

The protest group has targeted a number of financial institutions in the recent past and has a number of injunctions against other City financiers.

The group is currently prevented from protesting at Vanguard, State Street, Invesco, NYSE and Fidelity, amongst a number of other city companies.

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