A Series of Tubes

As part of the tree sit at UCSC, some of the protesters were there in opposition to the use of animals in research.  You can see one of the fliers from their website:

I do not agree that animal research should be stopped and the reason is that there is an increase in knowledge and well being that can be obtained through animal research.  Unethical animal experiments should be stopped and there should be safe regulations to enforce them.  I’m all for openness of what is happening in labs and rational debate.  Animal rights activists in the Santa Cruz area crossed the line between non violent protests and assault, intimidation, and trespassing.  From a blog that recently started requiring a password to view:

“I just heard that a group of researchers here at UCSC had their homes vandalized over the weekend.

This group of researchers, three in all, had their photo appear in a free local publication. Planters were smashed and offensive things were written on the sidewalk outside of their homes. Bricks through windows. Granted, not huge damages, but scary nonetheless.

One of the professors had a threatening phone call at his home last quarter regarding his stem cell research. This prof is married and has two small children at home.

I have so much to say on this topic, but right now I am so angry, frustrated, and threatened that can’t sort it all out for a blog post.”

So what is this all about?  A little bit more info can be found here:

http://messages.ucsc.edu/text.asp?pid=1943

And from an email

To: UCSC Community
Fr: Chancellor Blumenthal
Re: A Very Disturbing Incident Against UCSC Faculty

One of our faculty members, whose research addresses human disease, was the target Sunday afternoon of a very disturbing incident at the researcher’s residence in the city of Santa Cruz. The faculty member and family were home when six masked intruders attempted to force their way into the family’s residence. After a confrontation that involved a physical attack on one of the faculty member’s family, the six intruders fled.

It is very possible that the person whose house and family were attacked was my advanced neuroscience professor.  Masked protesters were yelling and banging away at the locked front door of this professor while children had to be corralled to the back of the house.   My Advanced Neuroscience Professor is a good person and she wants to help understand and cure breast cancer.  The account of the attack from the professor’s view can be found in the quotes in this article.

The police tracked down the getaway car, got a warrant to search the apartment where the driver was most likely staying, and enforced the warrant.  The enforcement of the warrant showed up on the indymedia website as evidence of a police state.  Considering the crowd that gathered and the background of the situation I don’t think that the amount of police there was excessive.  The actions were lawful.  Of course without any background information it does look like an excessive display of force.

The santa Cruz Sentinel version of the same event can be found here.

It doesn’t look good that recently released animal rights activist Peter Young who had been jailed for two years after being in hiding for 7 years moved to Santa Cruz and recently gave a talk.

On the topic of animal testing you can listen to a talk on NPR about it here:

http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200802293