Animal-Rights Militants Vandalize UCLA Researcher's House
By JJ HERMES
Chronicles of Higher Education

A house owned by a researcher at the University of California at Los Angeles was vandalized last week by the Animal Liberation Front, in yet another militant act against a UCLA faculty member who performs research on primates and other animals. The group, which is known as the ALF, claimed responsibility for breaking a window at the house on October 20 and inserting a garden hose with the water turned on. A UCLA spokesman confirmed that account. The animal-rights group also claimed to have intentionally clogged the drain of a swimming pool pump at the residence.

The house is owned by Edythe D. London, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral studies and director of UCLA's Laboratory of Molecular Neuroimaging. The ALF said it had singled her out because of her research on nicotine and methamphetamines involving primates.

Campaign of Violence
The Animal Liberation Front, which the Federal Bureau of Investigation considers a terrorist organization (The Chronicle, August 5, 2005), has recently focused violent action against UCLA researchers in an effort to halt experimentation on animals. In June a UCLA scientist found a makeshift bomb under his car at his home. The device failed to detonate because of a faulty fuse (The Chronicle, June 29). A year earlier, another UCLA scientist's home was the target of a Molotov cocktail, but it failed to ignite and had actually been placed outside the wrong house (The Chronicle, July 14, 2006). An investigation by the FBI into both incidents continues.

Gene D. Block, the university's chancellor, issued a statement on Monday that condemned the vandalism, which he said "resulted in tens of thousands of dollars in damage." The statement added: "At UCLA we are determined to expose and seek prosecution of extremists intent on harming people who have devoted their careers to conducting research that ultimately enhances or even saves lives." "Such tactics are beyond contemptible, have no place in a civilized society, and are completely unacceptable methods to achieve a political or policy goal," said Mr. Block.

Attempted Intimidation
Phil Hampton, a spokesman for the university, said there had been several other incidents of vandalism directed at the homes of UCLA researchers, including rocks thrown through windows. Animal-rights activists with a group called the UCLA Primate Freedom Project, which is unaffiliated with the ALF, have also conducted late-night demonstrations in front of the homes of researchers. Mr. Hampton said the university was taking steps to ensure the safety of its researchers and students, but the violence directed at faculty members also seems to have had a negative effect on the public disclosure of research.

Last month, while the University of California's Board of Regents considered a proposed ban on accepting tobacco-industry money for research, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on a study supported with a $6-million grant from Philip Morris, the tobacco company, in which Ms. London was the principal investigator. When an advocacy group requested copies of the grant proposal as a public record, the document that the university publicly released was heavily censored— in part, UCLA officials said, because information about animal studies might lead to harassment of the researchers.

Mr. Hampton said the disclosure had had a negative impact nonetheless. "It's unfortunate that information that is provided in response to open-records requests is being used to identify targets for demonstrations and attempted intimidation," he said.

'People Want to Do Something'
When asked why UCLA had been primarily singled out for violence by animal-rights extremists, a press officer for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, which relays "communiques" from the underground group but is not officially related to the organization, attributed the pattern to several things. He said it stemmed from a campaign a few years ago that used Freedom of Information Act requests to make public much of UCLA's research on laboratory animals, the news-media saturation in Los Angeles, and the presence of activists in the area who are willing to commit acts of violence.

"There is so much public information out there," said the press officer, Jerry W. Vlasak. "It makes people want to do something." Mr. Vlasak also said that heavy-handed tactics by UCLA's campus police force against animal-rights demonstrations, which have resulted in the detention and cataloging of nonviolent activists, have contributed to the attacks.

The communique about the attack against Ms. London indicates that the group may continue its threats against UCLA faculty members. "Water was our second choice, fire was our first," the statement reads. "We will not stop until UCLA discontinues its primate vivisection program."