Animal Researcher Protections Tightened
Publishing personal information on researchers or families with intent to harm is now a misdemeanor
by Curtis Cartier
With Gov. Schwarzenegger’s signature still wet on the recently passed amendments to the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, researchers at UCSC and animal right activists at the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) are sounding off about the law’s implications.
The amendments were pushed through the state assembly and senate as an “urgent bill” and became law with the governor’s John Hancock on Sept. 28. This tidy bit of legislation closes loopholes from 1992’s original Animal Enterprise Protection Act and makes it a misdemeanor to publish the personal information of researchers or their families with the intent to harm them. The law also makes it a misdemeanor to trespass onto a researcher’s property with the objective of hindering their work. It comes on the heels of the Aug. 2 attacks on two UCSC researchers’ homes, one of whom was in the house with his children during the attacks.
“We’re all delighted that it passed,” says UCSC Vice Chancellor of Research Bruce Margon. “But we shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking illegal violence is solved. A determined violent criminal will often find a way one way or another to commit a crime. The real protection comes from a whole set of tools. This is one. One of other tools, one that’s perhaps most important, is the community deciding that research on bio-medical issues is a great thing and that violence is not an expression of free speech.”
Jerry Vlasak, spokesman for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, which has ties to ALF, agrees with Margon that the law will not stop extremist violence but says it will be the removal of all animals from test labs that will protect researchers from violence—not the law.
“What this law doesn’t do is anything to protect animals that are being abused at UCSC,” says Vlasak. “The law is aimed at above-ground activists, not the underground activists. I think it’s unfortunate that society won’t protect these animals so activists have to take time out of their busy schedules to protect them with direct action.”
