UCLA Van Goes Up In Flames

[Hiram Jin]

For Immediate Release
June 16, 2008

Animal Liberation Front Fights on Behalf of Imprisoned Primates

Irvine: In an anonymous communiqué received today by the North
American Animal Liberation Press Office, the Animal Liberation Front
(ALF) claims to have set fire to a UCLA van as part of their campaign
to force the university to stop torturing non-human primates in their
laboratories.

The communiqué reads, in part:
At the start of last week, in Irvine, CA, a van owned by UCLA went up
in flames. For all of those affected you have the UCLA primate
vivisection program to blame. It is unacceptable for us to see, hear,
and know what is going on in our animal labs without taking action. We
are driven to show the world the compassionless support that UCLA
gives to these monkey killers and to do anything we can to end the
needless suffering that the primates are forced to face. The end of
UCLA vivisection is coming. We urge you to start switching over to non-
animal protocol without haste. -LA ALF

A long-running campaign to stop the medically useless research on non-
human primates at UCLA has seen peaceful and mainstream efforts such
as leafleting, petitions, meeting with UCLA administration and even
home demonstrations fail, as more animals die at larger expense to the
public every year. It is widely known researchers such as Edythe
London, who addicts primates to nicotine and methamphetamines,
continue to perform the same outmoded research for decades on end to
ensure continued university funding and thus secure their academic
success.

While UCLA's own press release issued Friday confirmed the torched van
sustained “extensive” damage, they also repeat the same tired and
untrue claims that their animal experiments “ leads to lifesaving
treatments”; in truth, they continue to waste scarce health-care
dollars on outdated animal research that should instead be used to
treat and research human diseases using modern, proven methods.

Inadvertently, in their attempts to crack down on legal and vocal
demonstrators, the university has merely shifted the burden of
activism to the underground groups such as the ALF.

Jerry W. Vlasak, MD, a press officer for the North American Animal
Liberation Press Office, states "It is indeed unfortunate that UCLA
has been unwilling to listen to more reasonable approaches to ending
the atrocities in their laboratories. Primate research will end, and
if UCLA could end their own addiction to easy grant money for this
fraudulent research, they could instead lead the scientific community
in the legitimate pursuit of medical cures using methods of research
shown to be more effective than the use of non-human animals."