Posted on 06/11/2008 9:45:01 AM PDT by jazusamo
Officials have been trying to keep it quiet, but 24 UC Berkeley researchers and seven staffers have been harassed by animal rights activists in recent months, in some cases having their homes or cars vandalized.
"What they all have in common is that they all work in animal research," UC Berkeley spokesman Robert Sanders said of the targeted employees.
In several instances, the activists have shown up outside researchers' homes in the middle of the night with bullhorns and chanting, "Animal killers." Sometimes they have scrawled slogans on the sidewalk in chalk.
On more than one occasion, rocks have been thrown through the researchers' windows and their cars have been scratched up.
"Sometimes (the activists) go up to the door," Sanders said, "which can be very frightening to the family."
According to UC, there have been 20 reports of damage to researchers' homes in Berkeley, Oakland and El Cerrito since August, including seven broken house windows and three vandalized cars.
Thirteen researchers have been harassed on more than one occasion, authorities said. One researcher, who studies how cat brains work for epilepsy research, has reported seven incidents at his home.
No specific group has been identified as being behind the harassment.
ALF Ping!
Well ya see, officer, I was still a little groggy, and couldn't understand what they were saying, and I just thought they were hoodlums trying to break in, so I just started shooting'....
Are there no noise ordinances in these towns?
Frankly, I’d be in front of a judge in a week with a request for a restraining order with both video and audio to prove my point.
And those despicable POS’s better hope the judge, or any member of his family, wasn’t saved from illness or condition by the results of medical research.
I’ve heard of sickening, despicable things being done to animals in the name of research - i.e. dogs being operated on w/o anesthetic but their vocal chords were cut so no one could hear them. How could anyone stand by while this is done? Or dogs eyes burned out with chenicals - and the only comfort given was another dog who came to lick the eyes of the burned dog.
Maybe some of this is necessary but I’m certain a lot of it is not - and certainly not in the cruel way some of it is done.
Carolyn
I believe there have probably been cruel things happen in research with animals. However, AR activist organizations such as PETA and the ALF will and have said anything they could to draw attention to their cause with many claims being flat out lies.
No one can convince me that research with animals doesn’t greatly benefit the advancement of medicine.
I can’t stand to watch animals being hurt. The only exception is moonbat weirdo hippie demonstrators.
It’s true, I do enjoy videos of demonstrators being tasered.
Yes, there is certainly a lot of unjustifiable research use of sentient creatures, and a lot of it has little or nothing to do with “saving human lives” or “curing human disease”, and a whole lot to do with professional researchers under pressure to “publish or perish” and pad their resumes with lots of “research” in order to keep the grant money flowing. The terrorist tactics, however, do more harm than good. But more people who disapprove of the terrorist tactics need to get behind non-terrorist tactics to crack down on animal cruelty hiding behing facades of “important research”.
The human body responds VERY, VERY differently when under extreme psychological stress or in extreme physical pain — immune system is suppressed, cortisol levels skyrocket, blood pressure and heart rate rise, all with very damaging effects to the processes involved in healing from injury or disease or fighting infection. So conducting experiments on animals being subjected to high levels of stress and pain weakens the validity of any results obtained.
However, a lot of these extremist protestors aren’t just opposed to cruelty to animals in the course of research, but are just ideologically opposed to any use of animals for human benefit, regardless of whether the animal actually suffers in any way.
If these protestors were truly concerned about the animals, they’d volunteer themselves to be the subjects of research.
UC Berkley? This guy knows exactly what he was getting himself in to. I find it hard to have sympathy.
I can vouch that the staffers cared far, far more about these animals than most other humans. Certainly more about them, than their lowly IT tech! :-)
Though UC Berkeley is located in the land of moonbats the university is quite respected in many fields including their research. But the AFL nuts are causing problems in other parts of CA also such as UCLA, Los Angeles.
AFL = ALF
People convicted of these attacks should lose the right to benefit from the results of research done on animals. That could extend to a great deal of modern medical practice but too bad. Terrorism should be met with harsh consequences.
Yes, and this isn’t something that’s just started, it’s been going on a while. The FBI has been involved in the investigation of these nuts for some time. They’ll get them eventually just like they got The Family ELF-ALF group in OR and WA.
I know. They have been around for many years.
The Animals are innocent but these dumb a$$e$ are criminals. They really don't champion animals they just play one on T.V.
8 yrs. ago, I had a horse (mare) that had just had a new foal, during the birthing the foal (kicked from inside the mare), a hematoma on her kidney and the Mare was in bad shape with internal bleeding. the vet told me to take her to the Large Animal Clinic in Auburn Alabama, so off we went. when we arrived at the clinic the gates were closed and there was a herd of folks mostly women, who were carrying picket signs stating that the University was using animals for testing.
I got out of my truck and told them to get out of the way so the guard could open the gate, they said no and began to yell at me and slap my truck with their signs. I told them one more time to get out of the way and again they said no. So I signaled the guard to open the gate and proceeded to bump into the picketers and I told them I would not hesitate to run them over because my horse was going to die if I didn't get her into the clinic.
I ran 4 of them over..And I don't regret it.. too bad!
Can someone please tell me why it is that we care more about the torture of animals (to save living human beings) than the torture of the living and growing children in their mothers’ wombs?
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