For Immediate Release
October 20, 2008
Latest Sabotage Includes at Least 12 Commuter Vans Belonging to the University
Los Angeles, CA: In an anonymous communiqué received by the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, animal liberationists claim to have sabotaged at least a dozen UCLA commuter vans as part of their continuing campaign against vivisectors there torturing and killing non-human primates. Two weeks ago, two additional vans were targeted in the same manner by placing live shotgun shells into their tailpipes, presumably causing their mufflers to explode once certain temperatures are reached. On September 19 of this year, an incendiary device was left under another van, three vans were allegedly seized in July, and another was destroyed by fire in June; as apparently easy targets, commuter van sabotage has cost the university hundreds of thousands of dollars. The current surge in underground actions caps years of unsuccessful dialogue with UCLA by mainstream activists interested in stopping the immeasurable suffering and death of primates in university laboratories.
The current communiqué reads, in part:
There are roughly 12 (give or take a few, they’ll have to find the exact number) of those UCLA vans driving around with unfired shotgun shells in their mufflers. Some of them may have ignited with the warm weather that we have been having. Most of them will eventually blow the mufflers straight off of those vans, it all depends on when the conditions are just right. The security cameras, the easily timed late night patrols, and the new laws don’t mean a thing to us. We WILL keep coming up with new ways to keep the primate torturers wondering. As we have said before: Leave the primates alone and we leave you alone.
Vivisection, or experimentation on animals, is not only an evil that is perpetrated on millions of innocent animals, but is also scientifically fraudulent. While 20,000 children worldwide die every month from the effects of unclean water, vivisectors in University of California laboratories are wasting money addicting primates to crystal methamphetamines, gluing coils to the globes of their eyes and doing other inhumane and painful experiments on other species of animals, including cats, dogs, pigs, mice and birds. In a civilized society, and with better alternatives to animal experimentation, US academia should be on the fore-front of good, solid, non-animal-based research that could save the lives of children and adults alike. Instead, greedy “scientists” continue business as usual by mutilating non-human animals; it seems that until they begin doing ethical and scientifically-valid non-animal research, vivisectors will continue to be a target for those who are moral, courageous and heroic.
UC bureaucrats recently forced AB 2296 on legislators and the California public, targeting the free-speech activities of legal animal-protectionist picketers. (A complete copy of the law is available here .) In an increasingly repressive environment where civil rights are being taken away from legal protesters, underground activities seem only to be increasing. Legal picketers are complaining of harassment, intimidation and arrest for marching on public sidewalks, chanting and even handing leaflets describing what a vivisector does to animals; 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.
Jerry W. Vlasak, MD, a press officer for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, states “Animal research is destined to end, and if the University of California 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. Instead however, UCLA continues to harass and intimidate legal picketers and leafleters, which only seems to increase the numbers of those who prefer to remain under the cover of darkness.”
To read the original ALF communiques, click here.