Animal rights terrorism suspected in UCLA scientist’s house fire
UCLA researcher Edythe London: Targeted by the ALF
Didn’t want to let this story get lost on Super Tuesday night. It’s a travesty that shouldn’t get ignored:
Authorities are investigating a fire caused by a device left today at a house owned by a UCLA professor who conducts animal research — the second time the house has been targeted in less than four months.
The device was placed this morning on the front porch of a Westside house owned by Edythe London, FBI officials in Los Angeles said.
London, a professor of psychiatry and bio-behavioral sciences and of molecular and medical pharmacology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, uses lab monkeys in her research on nicotine addiction.
FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller confirmed that officials with the Joint Terrorism Task Force were investigating the incident. “It was ignited and caused damage to the property,” Eimiller said. “No one was home at the time and nobody was hurt.” Eimiller said no one had claimed responsibility. But the agency is investigating the claim that the Animal Liberation Front used a garden hose to flood London’s house Oct. 20 in an attempt to stop her animal experiments.
UCLA Chancellor Gene Block condemned today’s vandalism.
“These kinds of deplorable tactics have no place in a civilized society,” Block said. “UCLA is working closely with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to bring to justice those responsible for this and other acts of violence against our researchers.”
London has spoken publicly about animal rights terrorism. Here’s her website. Here’s an excerpt from her November 2007 op-ed in defense of animal research:
For years, I have watched with growing concern as my UCLA colleagues have been subjected to increasing harassment, violence and threats by animal rights extremists. In the last 15 months, these attempts at intimidation have included the placement of a Molotov cocktail-type device at a colleague’s home and another under a colleague’s car — thankfully, they didn’t ignite — as well as rocks thrown through windows, phone and e-mail threats, banging on doors in the middle of the night and, on several occasions, direct confrontations with young children.
Then, several weeks ago, an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about the work I have been doing to understand and treat nicotine addition among adolescents informed readers that some of my research is done on primates. I was instantly on my guard. Would I be the next victim? Would the more extremist elements of the animal rights movement now turn their sights on me?
The answer came this week when the Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for vandalism that caused between $20,000 and $30,000 worth of damage to my home after extremists broke a window and inserted a garden hose, flooding the interior. Later, in a public statement addressed to me, the extremists said they had been torn between flooding my house or setting it afire. Maybe I should feel lucky.
Having come to the United States as the child of Holocaust survivors who had lost almost everything, I appreciate that perhaps “only in America” could I have fulfilled my dream of becoming a biomedical scientist, supported in doing research to reduce human suffering. But it is difficult for me to understand why the same country that was founded on the idea of freedom for all gives rise to an organization like the Animal Liberation Front, a shadowy group identified by the FBI as a domestic terrorism threat, which threatens the safety of researchers engaged in animal studies that are crucial to moving medicine forward.
Her call to arms concludes:
Thousands of other scientists use laboratory animals in other research, giving hope to those afflicted with a wide variety of ailments. Already, one scientist at UCLA has announced that he will not pursue potentially important studies involving how the brain receives information from the retina, for fear of the violence that animal rights radicals might visit on his family. We must not allow these extremists to stop important research that advances the human condition.
Where’s the PETA condemnation?
Cue the chirping crickets.
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Show your support.
London’s e-mail: elondon@mednet.ucla.edu
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My previous work on animal rights extremism and eco-terrorism here , here, and here.
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Categories: Animal rights wackos
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Why are there so many wackos out there?
California of course.
Humans are animals when it all comes down to the basics, so this Animal Liberation Front is hypocritical indeed. They must be democrats.
Save the poor wittle animals, but abort the unborn humans, and destroy those who oppose your way of thinking…Need anymore proof that liberalism deserves to be defeated?
And speaking of animals, we just had a tornado hit a mall in Memphis and collapsed a roof with people trapped.
In less than an hour the cops were having to keep looters out.
I guess they needed to liberate some sneakers and stereos!
Because there is little fear of getting caught and the punishment if they do isn’t a deterrent.
Yeah, probably to send to “the troops” they support.
This is a segment of the criminal element that has been almost completely ignored by the Federal government. They need to crack down on these people. Not only are they unstable and reckless, but they’re using intimidation to hamper scientific advancement in really important fields of research.
Because they believe everything is relative, morally speaking, and so long as they think (or claim) they’re on a journey toward some intangible self-enlightenment, it doesn’t matter who they hurt or what they say.
These eco-terrorists are close second to the terrorist of the Islamic kind.
They put animals above people.
And for those that blame CA, it’s not just here. UCLA is one of the best schools in the country for research that just happens to be in CA. So don’t blame the entire state and its population for a small fringe group of nutbags.
Remember the Vail fire? As I recall, that was in CO.
Remember the logging company vandalism in WA state? These losers are spread all over the country.
These terrorists should be tracked down and thrown in jail. Our country cannot afford to tolerate these kinds of criminals. Keep us up to date on this investigation, Michelle. Thanks for your post.
A possible solution…
for each one of these terrorist acts, a species gets removed from the Endangered Species list.
I have Type 1 Diabetes. I have been taking insulin for 16 years.
If there were no use of animals in lab research, I would be DEAD.
How can I help but take this totally seriously and personally? What this amounts to is a threat to the lives of any humans that might at present not be able to survive without future research.
I could not be peaceful if I were standing in front of these sub-humans taking these actions. They would find themselves wishing they were treated so well as lab animals.
Keyword here, terrorism! Wanted..country justice.
Some of us yearn for the days of Pete Wilson and when California’s economy was the envy of most small nations…GO BRUINS!!!
I just send Professor London an email of support. If it wasn’t for Animal Research, many of the medicines and vaccines I had taken as a child would never have been developed. Scientists usually never hear from the regular folk who benefit from their research. She needs to hear from all of us who support her work and the work of others who use animal research to the benefit of mankind. We can’t stand silent anymore.
Any body up for a praire dog shoot???
I just sent my email of supoprt as well.
CapriJugulum, I was thinking more along the lines of an ALF-hunt…..
These sub-humans have me pi**ed!
Maybe the evolutionists are right, and ALF represents an evolutionary dead end resulting from an unsuccessful mutation, and they just haven’t died out yet!
SHoward,
Praire dogs, Alf, are theynot both vermin. If this is so. Vermin carry flees and lice and all sorts of nasty things. They spread the plague. Is not the propaganda of ALF a plague? One that needs to be stopped?
So I ask whos up for a praire dog shoot?
If only she used embryonic stem cells!
Ya know, I hadn’t thought of it that way, CapriJugulum. You’re right: they breed like vermin, they carry disease and are loaded with lice and other parasites.
I guess I’m up for a prarie dog shoot!
SHoward,
I just calls’em as I sees’em
Oh in case any one is wondering. I do not believe in P.C. If the truth hurts then your probly an enlightened progressive thinker, aka liberal.
A good chance exists that some percentage of the $30 it took to put the device together and the gas to take their van over to the researchers house came from PETA.
To those of you who are young enough—-prepare yourselves,you are about to enter the New Dark Ages.Forget about logic and science,the world has abandoned all reason.
The last time I looked on the web for some of these people’s public traces almost the first thing I found was:
1) no public expression that was ‘current’
2) instructions on how to set up an encrypted messaging system.
ALF are terrorists, plain and simple. They should be hunted and thrown in jail. And if the money trail goes back to Hollywood PETA idiots, they also should be jailed.
There are so many “wackos” because it is easier to base decisions on emotion rather than logic. Politicians thrive on it. Create an enemy to deflect any attention off of the politician. Many people never learned about the country’s history or understand what it is all about. Nor, have they been outside the country, or even the state, they live in. They end up with blinders on and have nothing to use for decisions other than emotion.That’s why the Left uses profanity, insult, and violence to attempt their goals. If it feels good, it must be right.
Tennessee Dave has it right.
ALF is basically a group of democraps gone feral.
that sounds like a first.. did UCLA work with the FBI about oversea students who overstayed their visas?
Also, CarpiJugulum, are you a Terry Prachett fan?
I worked for a period of time for an agency that funds pediatric brain tumor research. You all would be appalled to know the amount of harassment and threats we received by the animal rights people, and guess what the most promising research for brain tumors was at that time… using fruit flies! The fruit fly has such a quick life span and a neurological system that is conducive to good research. It helped the researchers watch the progression from development to death and observe things that could change the course of the disease.
So, we got death threats and our President’s personal information was published on a website (his home address and phone number mind you!) because we raised money and approved funding for research using fruit flies.
There are so many stories of dealing with these people. Our main source of problems was with PETA. I have not thought about it in years. They are scary people, and they are definitely terrorists!
I guess it’s pretty much a double-edged sword. Thanks to animal research, those lunatics can protest and terrorize an average of 26.3 years longer.
Y’all are forgetting one thing here - it’s for the a-a-a-a-nimals!
/sarc
#25, you are sadly closer to the truth than I would have thought possible. The Scientific method exists in small pockets that will eventually need armed guards. History - swept away by agendas. 25% of Britons do not believe Winston Churchill existed. Much of the world believes the holocaust is a Zionist plot. Sad.
Just keep you eyes open for people carrying molotov cocktails on mopeds…what? Oh, apparently ALF is only concerned about one thing at a time.
Global warming will have to wait. Wonder if ALF is buying carbon credits from the goreacle to cover their firebombing escapades, you know, to keep everything in balance.
Cool how eco-terrorists could create their very own closed loop system!
As far as I’m concerned, these ALFs/ELFs are no better than the Islamofascists. Their religion isn’t based on glorifying animals as it is hating people. They’re spoiled white middle class kids with a self-righteous streak and a loathing for society. Just wait until these nuts burn down a whole subdivision, killing little kids, or blow up a store.
I don’t agree with any violent tactics at all on the part of those who are speaking out against vivisection. They made a mistake and did something very wrong. But keep in mind, the vast majority of anti-vivisectionists are not violent at al and remain peaceful.
Having said that, I cannot agree with her research. Study nicotine addiction? No. We already know everything we need to know. To make innocent beings suffer, and they so suffer, for this is heartless and the karma involved is so heavy no good will come of it. What a waste. She is an attractive women from a difficult background but obviously she has no compassion or ethics towards other beings. I do not support her and her research. If you want to know about nicotine addiction study real people in real living situations.
Are you volunteering, Soliel?
If ALF and PETA are serious about protecting animals, why don’t they volunteer to take the place of the animals?
Too bad the parts of the brain responsible for critical thinking are underdeveloped in these people. As such, they would make a poor substitute for lab animals in certain neurological and psychological studies.
Well, you see Doctor Hook, the disease they have, whatever it is, causes them to feel great sympathy for the plight of lower animals, but none for their fellow man.
Oh, they’re also generally hippocrites. If their own child’s life were on the line methinks they might feel differently. Or would they?
This subject was on my mind this morning as I got ready for work. I realized something: Read Soliel’s post above, and you will see that he/she seems more concerned with having good kharma or joss or whatever, as well as a clear concience, than being able to help human beings survive.
I have Type 1 Diabetes. If it were not for animal research, I would be dead today. Since I’m only 37, I really don’t think it’s time. My best friend’s step-daughter is 12 and type 1 diabetic. She wouldn’t have made it to 7 or 8. Would Soliel have us DIE so she could have a clear conscience and good joss?
And these arogant jerks call us selfish.
My health has not come from vivisection. My good health has come from my personal responsibility, from yoga, eating a whole foods diet, exercise, herbs and positive thinking. It has not come from the next miracle drug. It has not come from drugs or a laboratory.
I will give a nod to anti-biotics…but even then, we do not know the effects of drugs on people until we study them on people, period. No matter how many species a drug is tested on, we do not know the ill effects until it is taken by people.
Conservatives question everything government does except vivisection. Why not? Billions are going into vivisection every year but with minimal or BAD results. Notice all the terrifying side effects of “miracle” drugs. The side effects are worse than the disease. About 200,000 DIE a year from these drugs alone…not to mention another huge chunk who die while in the hospital. All of these drugs were tested on animals YET they harm us and the side effects are horrible. It’s a failed science.
One should ask “is there a better place for these billions? You should know universities profit IMMENSELY from government money for vivisection. A better place for the money would be an emphasis on how we can take care of our own health thru proper living, prevention, like cleaning up our environment, like not eating crappy food that makes us sick or just STOP SMOKING”. Yes! It’s as obvious as the nose our faces. But see there is little money or glamour in prevention. There is little for the drug companies to make thru new habits…they can’t make blockbuster profits thru new drugs.
My last note…these primates were not put on this earth to be caged and some scientist to experiment on. It’s sickening to me, when we know already that smoking is bad, that it is addictive and there are plenty of smokers to study, real humans in real environments yet this woman thinks she is doing us a favor by forcing chimps to smoke in a lab? No, I dont’ think so. IT’s selfish, it’s greedy and it is not going to better our lives one bit.
And yes, to the poster a head of me, I think scientists would do much better studying actual humans. They can study me. They can take blood tests, get info on how diet is helping or hurting, monitor me, Yes, LOOK AT HUMANS, not animals, who are often a totally different species in an artifical environment.
This woman deserves the heat she is taking. It is just so incredibly selfish to take these living beings, cage them up and force them to smoke to study the effects of addiction when we have so many humans to study. Unbelievable.
SHoward
Every experiment needs to be questioned as to it’s real validity. If you looked deeper, you would see that so much of it is a total waste and there to enrich universities and such. We need to question the belief that vivisection is the key to good health. The truth is, other factors are more important and more effective. But see we’ve been taught to believe that “They” are saving us, oh really? In my life, it is natural medicine, my habits, my eating, and herbs that have improved my life, not a pill. I sympathize with your situation very much…but most of the time natural health is much more effective, not toxic, for chronic diseases. Take care.
Soliel,
If it was a matter of public pressure and withholding of funds for research, I would call that “putting the heat” on Professor London. Acts of terrorism like this are NOT justifiable no matter what your opinion is on this matter.
Soliel,
I won’t take exception to your observation that there may be a money component involved, and you probably have a point there.
I’ll give you another one: yeah, maybe we really do know enough about the ill-effects of smoking.
As for overall health, there is a pretty big distinction between wellnes and survival.
Sure, healthy habits and excercise are better than a pill. No arguement there. The problem for many of us is that there IS NO natural treatment for people like me. There isn’t one for many different conditions. Many of us are in fact alive only because medical scientists were able to determine what’s going on and what to do about it via animal based research.
There isn’t a natural treatment for everything out there. No matter how much we’d like there to be. There also isn’t always an alternative to animal based research.
As for the professor, I think Cameron is on to something: no one deserves the kind of “Heat” being placed on her. That is terrorism, no matter how you feel about her work.
Quite frankly, before I discuss the people alledgedly harmed by medicines, shouldn’t I try to consider the number that may have been saved?