For Immediate Release
Contact AL Press Office at 818.932.9997

April 28, 2005

Chief Patent Counsel at Forest Labs Targeted By Animal Activists

Long Island, NY: On April 17 th , the underground Animal Liberation Front (ALF) issued a communiqué in which they take credit for vandalizing the automobile of Chuck Ryan, Chief Patent Counsel for Forest Laboratories. Forest Labs is headquartered in New York City and is notorious for its contractual relationship with Huntington Life Sciences (HLS), an animal-testing companied targeted by animal rights activists for cruel treatment of animals.

According to recent news reports, the FBI has formally opened an investigation into the incident, in which activists used personal information from the Ryan family to divert $20,000 of their money into charities that do not support wasteful animal experimentation.

HLS has been exposed in five separate undercover investigations punching beagle dogs in the face, dissecting still-living primates, and dozens of other atrocities against animals in their laboratories located in New Jersey and the United Kingdom. The company has been fined by regulatory agencies, but has not changed their practices; they have been targeted in an international campaign coordinated in part by a group of organizations collectively known as Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty ( www.shac.net ).

The communiqué received by the Press Office reads in part:
”Chuck, you, and Forest can begin to make things right by making a public statement that Forest Labs will no longer have a customer contract with HLS. We assume that by this point in the letter you can see that we are not playing games. Chuck, you need to come to terms in your life and realize that the way you live is unacceptable.  On your trip to India you were freaked out by the way animals roamed freely with people, was that because you could not bear the thought of facing a non human animal whoes brethren you may have slaughtered?  .”

The entire communiqué is available for viewing here.