Animal liberation front rescue
Two dozen monkeys apparently were overlooked by the raiders. Near some open pigeon cages the words “Freed ALF” were sprayed. “Psyc Research on Animals-Bad Science at It’s (sic) Worst” was sprayed on one wall. Yellow swastikas were spray-painted on display cases. Reporters who toured the building saw extensive damage-graffiti spray-painted on walls, computer terminals knocked over and smashed, sophisticated monitoring equipment with wires yanked out and animal and bird feed scattered on floors. The raid was carried out in biology and psychology laboratories in the basement and on the first floor of the Life Sciences Building.
Those people who took the animals are hurting mankind.” These experiments are designed to help all of mankind. I know these animals that were taken are now suffering. “I have always loved animals and children because nobody else would stand up for them. “I want to cry when I see this,” she said, looking at a row of empty rabbit cages. “Both (groups) want to see an end to animal experimentation because it is crude, cruel, unreliable, an old habit and big business,” she said.īut Tamaro Roth, supervisor of animal facilities at UC Riverside, charged that it was a greater cruelty to steal the animals. She said that although PETA supports the ALF in its opposition to animal experimentation, it does not take part in raids such as the underground group has conducted. “I don’t know where the animals are presently,” she said, “but it is my understanding they are going to safe, loving homes throughout the U.S.” She said she was told the animals were being cared for by veterinarians, if necessary, and would be given foster homes. He said it was his understanding that more than 1,000 animals had been taken from the campus labs.īut Lucy Shelton, co-coordinator of the Los Angeles chapter of PETA, said she had been given the figure 260. A package of such tapes and photos was delivered to Javier Burgos, president of the anti-vivisectionist Students United Protesting Research on Sentient Subject (SUPPRESS) at his home in Altadena sometime during the night. Miller said video tapes and still photos were made by the raiders. He said that the sutures that closed one eye on the cats, for example, could be easily removed later with no permanent loss of sight. Vice Chancellor Hullar said that none of the animals was mistreated. Normally vegetarian animals were forced to eat meat in nutritional experiments, according to information from the front, she added. Miller also said that among the animals taken from the labs were cats with one eye sewn shut, rabbits and pigeons which had been starved and opossums subjected to “brutal eye mutilation before they were old enough to leave the security of their mother’s pouch.” Warren said the animal was the subject of studies to develop “mobility aids” for blindness. He said the monkey was born on the campus weeks ago and its eyes had been sutured closed. She said virtually its entire skull was covered by surgical tape and implanted with an electronic device.ĭavid Warren, dean of the college of humanities and social sciences, said that while the sonar device which had been placed on the monkey’s head may have looked painful, “no pain was involved.” The sonar device was taped to the head, not implanted in the animal’s skull, Warren said. She also said the tiny primate, only slightly larger than a human hand, had been removed from its mother at birth and kept caged in isolation since then. She said the macque was an infant which had been subjected to sight deprivation experiments since birth. Vicki Miller, spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in Washington, said the front contacted her and reported that 16 people participating in the Riverside operation had taken a single stump-tailed macque monkey, 21 cats, 35 rats, 38 pigeons, more than 80 rats, 9 opossums and more than 70 gerbils. The ALF claimed credit for the raid, latest of nearly two dozen similar operations in the United States, Great Britain and Canada in the last few years, through spokesmen from sympathetic organizations in Southern California and Washington. Chief Bill Howe suggested the possibility of “some inside help” because doors usually locked had been opened with keys rather than forced.