>12/08/99- Updated 12:23 AM ET
>
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>Violence escalates over animal research
>
>By Tim Friend, USA TODAY
>
>What once was a debate between people who support animal rights and
>those who use animals
>for research has become a guerilla war fought with spray paint,
>broken glass, firebombs and
>death threats.
>
>A USA TODAY analysis of reports of violent attacks, provided by
>activists and animal research
>groups, shows vandalism at research facilities and threats against
>scientists are accelerating to
>the highest levels in the history of the U.S. animal rights movement.
>
>Main targets of the violence are university laboratories and
>federally funded primate research
>centers, which claim millions of dollars in property damage and loss
>of years of data on
>experiments from attacks this year.
>
>In recent weeks, 83 scientists received letters containing razor
>blades intended to slice their
>fingers. Since April, half a dozen scientists have reported masked
>activists in their front yards
>chanting death threats, breaking windows of homes or cars and, in one
>case, setting fire to an
>effigy in the lawn.
>
>Among reported attacks:
>
>In April, neurology labs at the University of Minnesota were
>ransacked, resulting in
>$700,000 in damage; 116 animals were released, mostly mice.
>
>In April, three labs at the University of California at San Francisco
>were vandalized and a
>scientist threatened at home. Demonstrations at scientists' homes,
>where activists show photos
>of surgical procedures to neighbors and chant threats, are rising.
>
>In August, labs were raided at BioDevices, a pacemaker manufacturing
>company in Orange
>County, Calif.; 46 dogs, some claimed by activists to have been
>household pets, were removed.
>
>In October and November, labs at Western Washington State University
>were struck twice;
>offices and experiments were destroyed and animals were removed.
>Officials announced
>Tuesday that they were tightening security at research facilities.
>
>The activists say they believe it is immoral to conduct animal
>experiments, and animals have
>rights equal to humans. Biomedical researchers argue that animals are
>necessary for studying
>human diseases, practicing surgical procedures and developing
>treatments. Labs are required by
>law to follow animal welfare regulations.
>
>Are animals needed?
>
>Ingrid Newkirk, director of People for the Ethical Treatment of
>Animals, says the debate goes
>beyond philosophy and, despite regulations, animals suffer pain
>during experiments, and large
>numbers are "slaughtered" each year. She says more people are
>questioning the necessity of
>animal research and its value to medical science.
>
>Last year, an estimated 23 million mammals were used in research. Of
>those, about 95% were
>rats and mice, which are not subject to guidelines on pain and
>suffering or disposal, according
>to the National Association for Biomedical Research.
>
>The USDA reports that 1.2 million larger animals are regulated,
>including 57,377 primates,
>76,071 dogs, 24,712 cats, 287,523 rabbits, 261,305 guinea pigs,
>206,243 hamsters and 157,620
>farm animals.
>
>Joe Kimnitz, of the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center at the
>University of
>Wisconsin at Madison, has been a frequent target of activists, at
>home and the lab.
>
>Kimnitz argues that research is necessary for development of vaccines
>and that it has
>contributed to most medical breakthroughs in the 20th century,
>including the polio vaccine,
>tested on rabbits, monkeys and rodents; bypass surgery, developed on
>dogs; and advances in
>neurology made by studying cat brains and nervous systems.
>
>Animal welfare is protected, he says, by USDA's Animal and Plant
>Health Inspection Service,
>which enforces the Animal Welfare Act.
>
>Flagrant abuses of animals are not common, but they occur. New York
>University paid the
>largest fine ever levied by the service, $400,000 in 1996, according
>to the USDA. This year, the
>Coulston Foundation, a private primate facility, was sanctioned for
>abuses and must remove
>300 of its 650 primates.
>
>Such abuses do not reflect care taken at most labs, but they fuel the
>fires for violence and add
>members to the rosters at groups such as PETA.
>
>No federal agency tracks the violence to determine whether it's
>rising and whether fears
>expressed by scientists are warranted. But extensive interviews with
>both sides strongly suggest
>that the violence will escalate and continue unchecked.
>
>"The majority of people in the animal rights movement are wonderful
>human beings who just
>want to see suffering diminished," says deafness researcher Edward
>Walsh of Boys Town
>National Research Hospital in Omaha, Neb. He, his wife and 5-year-old
>son received death
>threats and bomb threats two years ago.
>
>"On the other hand, there is this small core and I can't conceive of
>a more vicious violent
>terrorist group," he says. "I never walk to my car without wondering
>whether it will be the last
>time I turn the ignition. It's astonishing to me that some kid hasn't
>been orphaned already. I
>honestly believe that will happen."
>
>A loosely organized group called the Animal Liberation Front (ALF),
>funded in England in the
>mid-1970s and active in the USA for 20 years, claims responsibility
>for most of the vandalized
>labs. A group that calls itself the "Justice Department" claimed
>responsibility for the razor
>blade letter mailings.
>
>"I would suggest that ALF activities have increased dramatically in
>the last three to four years,"
>says ALF spokesperson David Barbarash of Vancouver, British Columbia.
>
>The reason for the increase in laboratory raids has less to do with
>passion than with lack of law
>enforcement.
>
>"People aren't scared of being arrested anymore and people (ALF
>members) are learning to be
>more careful in their activities," Barbarash says. ALF maintains a
>Web site with instructions for
>breaking into labs without being caught. "Given the number of
>activities, there is a pitiful
>amount of success in solving crimes," he says. "By far the majority
>of actions are unsolved ."
>
>Tracy Forston, a lobbyist with the National Association for
>Biomedical Research, agrees.
>"There have not been a lot of arrests, maybe three to four
>convictions, and a few more arrests
>that were plea bargained.
>
>Law enforcement
>
>The USA TODAY analysis shows that acts of vandalism against
>laboratories rose steadily
>throughout the 1980s, then abruptly stopped in 1992-93. Both
>Barbarash and Forston attribute
>the drop to prosecutors' use of grand juries to investigate, and to
>passage of the Animal
>Enterprise Protection Act, which created felony penalties for causing
>more than $10,000
>damage to a lab or animal commercial enterprise.
>
>"We thought the Animal Enterprise Act would heighten awareness of
>these acts of terrorism
>and violence," says Forston, whose group lobbied for the act.
>
>To the surprise of groups such as NABR and ALF, enforcement of the
>Animal Enterprise
>Protection Act has been minimal and investigations by local law
>enforcement and the FBI have
>led to few arrests.
>
>Steven Berry of the FBI in Washington, D.C., says that violence
>against laboratories and
>scientists are investigated through the agency's domestic terrorism
>division. But he estimates no
>more than 5% of resources at FBI regional divisions are spent
>investigating animal activists
>engaged in terrorist crimes. Most incidents are "so sporadic and
>issue-driven that it is hard to
>see a pattern," he says.
>
>The FBI is investigating the October razor blade letter campaign. No
>arrests have been made.
>
>Barbarash says ALF does not view vandalism of property as violence.
>
>" Destroying their property gets at what they cherish most, which is
>things over lives. The ALF
>exists to put animal abusers out of business."
>
>ALF's European counterpart engages in even greater violence,
>particularly against the fur
>industry, where ALF is most active, and both sides expect it will be
>exported here. "There've
>been more acts of violence or at least threats against researchers in
>the U.K.," Barbarash says.
>"But I've noticed an increase of razor blade letter campaigns in
>North America and property
>destruction, and we're seeing more fires now than ever."
>
>The response of the biomedical community has largely been to retreat
>under heavier security
>and deny access to labs when researchers are experimenting on
>animals. Most primate research
>facilities today look more like maximum-security prisons than
>laboratories. Many of the
>researchers who were most recently threatened declined to be
>interviewed, citing fear for their
>families.
>
>"One of the things that I discovered as a consequence of this
>experience is exactly how poorly
>the scientific community has done in educating the public about our
>work," Walsh says.
>
>Kimnitz says his lab should increase security but he prefers its open
>approach and says he
>refuses to be intimidated.
>
>"I think they are not succeeding at all," he says. "I don't know
>anyone who is going to change
>careers or alter the line of work they are doing as result of this
>kind of activity. They undermine
>the case that is being made by the more moderate animal rights contingents."
>
>Walsh says he and his wife, who also is a researcher, considered
>retiring after threats such as
>the following fax:
>
>"I'm coming to Omaha to see the three of you real soon. We'll have so
>much fun together. I'm
>glad you like experiments. I have a few of my own to perform. And I
>hope that you die and
>your death will come soon."
>
>But it was pressure by PETA that made Boys Town abandon the use of
>cats in research. PETA
>organized a campaign of 30,000 letters to Boys Town corporate
>offices, Walsh says. He now
>experiments primarily on mice.
>
>Seeking alternatives to animals is one fundamental that everyone from
>the most radical activist
>to the most conservative scientist agrees is a good idea. But that's
>where the agreement ends.
>
>Activists claim alternatives such as computer simulation and tissue
>cultures are good enough to
>substitute for animals today. Few in the biomedical research community agree.
>
>"Certainly when I look at biomedical research, there are no good
>alternatives," says Joe
>Bielitzki, chief veterinarian for NASA and director of animal
>research for the upcoming space
>station. "Everyone would love to switch from animals, but it isn't there yet."
>
>In the meantime, Bielitzki says the public should decide for itself
>whether research should be
>conducted on animals and whether the potential medical benefits are worth it.
>
>"We're walking contradictions. When animal control picks up stray
>dogs and cats, it's OK to
>euthanize them, but wrong to do that in a lab."
>
>"This is a discussion that needs to be had. People need to ask
>themselves basic questions about
>what they gain and what they give up with the animal rights
>philosophy. If they are willing to
>give things up, they should embrace it. (But) I have found that most
>people are not willing to
>give up most uses of animals."
>
>
>
>© Copyright 1999 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
>


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