Firebombings Shake Santa Cruz
UCSC researchers targeted by animal rights activists
Story by Curtis Cartier
A charred spot of asphalt and a scalded front door are all that remain after Saturday’s early morning attack targeting two UCSC researchers, but among neighbors and community members, fear and outrage persist.
“It’s terrible. This is a huge threat to academic freedom,” said David Keller, director of Residential Services at UCSC and neighbor to a researcher whose car was destroyed.
“I have a child and he was terrified. Given the nature of fire, it could have easily spread to my house or someone else’s house.”
The blasts at two residences, which destroyed a vehicle and damaged a home, were carried out in an act of what police are calling domestic terrorism. No one was killed in the blasts, which happened around 5:40am, but David Feldheim, a UCSC molecular biologist, injured his feet when he, along with his wife and two small children, were forced to flee their burning house through a window, police said.
Militant animal rights activists are believed to be behind the attacks, which came five days after a pamphlet turned up at several local businesses containing the names, addresses and photographs of 13 UCSC faculty members described on the leaflet as “animal abusers.”
“Animal abusers beware; we know where you live; we know where you work; we will never back down until you end your abuse,” reads the flyer.
Santa Cruz police held a press conference Monday at the police department’s headquarters, where Police Chief Howard Skerry and Santa Cruz Mayor Ryan Coonerty said a $30,000 reward is being offered for information on who’s responsible for the attacks.
“A significant amount of physical evidence was collected, including witness statements and surveillance camera footage,” said Skerry, addressing a bristling wall of television cameras and microphones. “We have a family attacked in sanctity of their home. Children were involved. This is unacceptable.”
The bulk of the investigation has been handed over to the FBI, which, Skerry said, is better equipped to handle these types of cases.
Meanwhile, Michael Budkie, founder of Stop Animal Exploitation Now, an Ohio-based animal rights activist network that publishes information about laboratories and researchers—including some information found on the threatening pamphlets found in Caffe Pergolesi and other businesses—defended the activists in principle.
He said laboratories at universities like UCSC are home to lawless acts of animal cruelty.
“These laboratories have non-human primates that are deprived of water and food for days at a time,” Budkie said. “If you did this in your home, you could be arrested and charged with animal cruelty. But because these scientists say it’s OK, they’re allowed to do it.”
Budkie said his organization had nothing to do with the firebombings and said only business contact information on researchers is published on SAEN’sWeb site, www.all-creatures.org/saen.
In an email to students and staff, UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal called the attacks “odious assaults on individuals and on the principles of free inquiry by which we live” and urged students and staff to take extra caution in the coming weeks.
“These unconscionable acts put the researchers, their families, including their children, and their neighbors in grave danger,” reads the email. “They follow earlier aggressive acts of intimidation, trespassing, vandalism, and a physical attack last spring and the discovery of leaflets this past week threatening UCSC research scientists.”
Along with FBI and local police, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are said to be involved with the investigation. Anyone with information on the attacks should contact Santa Cruz Police at 831.420.5800 or leave a tip on the anonymous tip line at 831.420.5995.
