printer friendly, larger print version

September 23, 2008

Another UCLA Van Goes Up In Flames; ALF Takes Credit
Second UCLA Van to be Burned Recently; Three Others Stolen This Summer to Protest Primate Experiments

In an anonymous communiqué received by the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) claims to have set ablaze another UCLA van as part of their campaign to force the university to stop torturing and killing non-human primates in their laboratories. This is the second UCLA van to be burned recently; three other vans were stolen according to previous communiques in the past three months. The Los Angeles-area action comes on the heels of a Florida raid by the ALF that released caged monkeys destined for vivisection labs.

The communiqué reads, in part:
New classes, expensive books, oh, and burning vans. That's right we are back to work. An incindiary device was left under a van in Acton, CA in the first hours of Thursday, Sept. 18th. Let's hope it worked as well as the one in Irvine.Let's also hope that the UCLA regents make some good choices so that we don't have to keep doing this. We don't want to have to go further but be assured that we will if need be.-ALF

(To read the entire communiqué, visit www.animalliberationpressoffice.org/communiques_home.htm)

There is a movement throughout the nation and the world to stop primate experimentation, as well as give primates some legal rights to bodily protection. Spain passed a law giving certain primates legal rights and several European countries have outlawed using primates for medical experimentation. Though the animal rights movement calls for the abolition of all animals exploitation, much of the current focus is on giving non-human primates freedom from imprisonment, torture, agony, and finally death after using them in frivolous and repetitive experiments.

In an increasingly repressive environment where 1st Amendment Free Speech rights are being taken away from legal picketers, underground activities seem to be increasing. Legal picketers are complaining of harassment, intimidation and arrest for marching and chanting on public sidewalks; they feel as if they are being targeted by the state unfairly and have filed a federal law suit against UCLA and it's captain of police, John Adams. Despite increased police repression, there is ample evidence to show that the campaign to stop primate vivisection at UCLA is continuing by both legal and illegal activities. Historically, those who engage in illegal activities do not participate in legal pickets.

During this long-running campaign to stop the medically useless research on non-human primates, UCLA has seen peaceful and mainstream efforts such as leafleting and petitions fail as more animals are killed at larger expense to the public every year. It is widely known researchers such as Edythe London, who addicts primates to nicotine and methamphetamines, continue to perform the same outmoded research for decades on end to ensure continued university funding and thus secure their academic success. She and UCLA continue to waste scarce health-care dollars on outdated animal research that should instead be used to treat and research human diseases using modern, proven methods.

Jerry W. Vlasak, MD, a press officer for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, states "It is indeed unfortunate that UCLA has been unwilling to listen to more reasonable approaches to ending the atrocities in their laboratories. Primate research will end, and if UCLA could end their own addiction to easy grant money for this fraudulent research, they could instead lead the scientific community in the legitimate pursuit of medical cures using methods of research shown to be more effective than the use of non-human animals, including primates."