ALF lab attacks

There is a long and somewhat balanced article headed "Ground zero of labs vs. animal-rights activists" on the front page of the Thursday, June 9, Chicago Tribune.

It opens:

"The shaky, amateurish video shows everything in graphic detail: Four masked people break into darkened university labs, pour toxic chemicals onto computers and stacks of files, and release hundreds of research rats and mice. They spray-paint walls with slogans such as 'Science not Sadism' and 'Free the Animals.' The November break-in at the University of Iowa's Spence Laboratories--an act for which there have been no arrests but for which the group Animal Liberation Front, or ALF, has claimed responsibility--is characterized by university and law-enforcement officials as terrorism.

"The incident has made the University of Iowa, a school in the heart of one of America's most farm-centered, meat-producing states, ground zero in a national battleground over animal-based research at taxpayer-funded institutions.

"At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, animal-rights activists are protesting research getting under way that uses pigs to measure the impact of police stun guns. No violent incidents have been reported in Madison, but officials there have increased security at research buildings.

It mentions the upcoming trial of an activist who released hundreds of minks in 1997 and the current trial of the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty campaigners. It shares some of the ALF battle cries:

"'Let this message be clear to all who victimize the innocent: We're watching. And by axe, drill, or crowbar--we're coming through your door. Stop or be stopped,' the ALF Web site warned before listing the home addresses of the Iowa scientists who experiment on animals."

It tells us that Leana Stormont, "the face and voice of the push to stop animal experimentation at the University of Iowa...gives rational and reasoned answers to most questions." Without giving a blanket condemnation to all animal research for any purpose, she says that "most animal experimentation is senseless."

We read:
"She rails against legislation that requires universities to report publicly only on experiments on animals such as dogs and monkeys but does not require that they report the number of rodents and birds used in research. And she argues that some of the most effective drugs--aspirin and penicillin--were once almost scrapped because animals did not respond well to them."

The article also quotes a cardiologist who stresses the importance of animal experimentation and calls those protesting against it "terrorists."

John Webster is quoted defending his research using pigs to test Taser guns, but we learn:
"Terry Young, an epidemiologist and professor of population health sciences, noisily withdrew from a research project with Webster in March after learning that Webster was leading the stun-gun study. 'It hit a very sensitive nerve,' Young said, arguing that the study is unnecessary and would be cruel to the pigs."

You can read the whole article on line at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0506090213jun09,1,1064633.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed OR http://tinyurl.com/9nzzw

It presents a great opportunity for letters about some of the trivial purposes for which humans makes other animals suffer and/or about the irony of the terrorist label being applied to people who have never hurt anybody.

The Chicago Tribune takes letters at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/letters/chi-lettertotheeditor.customform OR http://tinyurl.com/4lsug

There is also a vote on the left hand side of the web version of the article, asking if the Animal Liberation Front goes too far. Within the mainstream of our movement there are those who think the ALF damages our movement's reputation, and those who think that the ALF's ability to get press -- articles such as this one, on the front page of a leading newspaper, in which the horrors going on in laboratories are at least discussed -- more than validate their efforts. I think both viewpoints are valid -- perhaps something to think about when you vote.


(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)