For Immediate Release
June 16, 2008
UCLA Van Goes Up In Flames
Animal Liberation Front Fights on Behalf of Imprisoned Primates
Irvine: In an anonymous communiqué received today by the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) claims to have set fire to a UCLA van as part of their campaign to force the university to stop torturing non-human primates in their laboratories.
The communiqué reads, in part:
At the start of last week, in Irvine, CA, a van owned by UCLA went up in flames. For all of those affected you have the UCLA primate vivisection program to blame. It is unacceptable for us to see, hear, and know what is going on in our animal labs without taking action. We are driven to show the world the compassionless support that UCLA gives to these monkey killers and to do anything we can to end the needless suffering that the primates are forced to face. The end of UCLA vivisection is coming. We urge you to start switching over to non-animal protocol without haste. -LA ALF
A long-running campaign to stop the medically useless research on non-human primates at UCLA has seen peaceful and mainstream efforts such as leafleting, petitions, meeting with UCLA administration and even home demonstrations fail, as more animals die 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.
While UCLA’s own press release issued Friday confirmed the torched van sustained “extensive” damage, they also repeat the same tired and untrue claims that their animal experiments ” leads to lifesaving treatments”; in truth, they continue to waste scarce health-care dollars on outdated animal research that should instead be used to treat and research human diseases using modern, proven methods.
Inadvertently, in their attempts to crack down on legal and vocal demonstrators, the university has merely shifted the burden of activism to the underground groups such as the ALF.
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.”