University of California Tries to Outlaw Animal Rights Activism

[Guest guest]

UC seeks law to crack down on animal-rights protests By Matt Krupnick Contra Costa Times Article Launched: 04/14/2008 07:22:52 PM PDT The University of California has gone to the Legislature seeking to restrict public access to information about academics who do animal research and to make it illegal to post personal information about them online. The prohibited online information would include the

researchers' names, home addresses and photographs. The measure, AB2296, also would outlaw activities targeting corporate researchers. Assemblyman Gene Mullin, D-San Mateo, agreed to submit the legislation at UC's request after months of harassment, threats and vandalism at the homes and offices of university researchers. "Several campuses have experienced incidents which are just shocking," said Chancellor George Blumenthal of UC Santa Cruz during a telephone news conference Monday. Protesters in February are accused of trying to break into a UC Santa Cruz professor's home and attacking her husband. "It's the greatest threat to academic freedom that I've ever seen on this campus." At UCLA, protesters both flooded and lit a fire at a medical professor's home. Activists have visited the homes of UC Berkeley researchers, shouting, posting fliers and , in the past few days, breaking windows. Such a law would curtail free speech,

said Jerry Vlasak, a Los Angeles-area surgeon who acts as a spokesman for the more extreme branch of the animal-rights movement. It would not stop vandalism and other protests, he said. "The people who are doing underground direct action don't care what the law says anyway," he said. The measure "is aimed at those who are exercising their free-speech rights." Limits on protests walk a fine line between oppressive and protective, said Michael Risher, a San Francisco-based attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. Courts have ruled that similar restrictions on Web sites targeting abortion doctors are legal, he said, but only when they are likely to incite violence."We would really want to see that there's a threat to people's safety," he said. The bill may "sweep much too broadly." Mullin acknowledged Monday that he is trying to balance First Amendment rights with protection for researchers. He said he plans to rewrite the

information restriction this week to protect a select group of them. "We're not in the business of narrowing constitutional protections," he said. "Finding that balance is what we're all about." The amended version would limit California's public-records laws, however. Legislators will be asked to exempt information about researchers from disclosure under the California Public Records Act, which makes most government documents available to anyone who asks for them. UC leaders said they were worried that protesters had obtained personal information on the professors from public records, but they had no specific examples. Protesters increasingly have targeted professors who use animals in their research, citing examples of drilled skulls, forced dehydration and paralyzation of cats, rats and hyenas. Activists say the research is unnecessary and overly invasive.University administrators said the research could not be done without using animals

and have repeatedly called the protesters terrorists. "Free speech is not the issue," said Steven Beckwith, the UC vice president for research. "The issue is violence. We just don't tolerate violence." Matt Krupnick covers higher education. Reach him at 925-943-8246 or mkrupnick. ONLINE: read the proposed animal-researcher law, go to www.leginfo.ca.gov/bilinfo.html and search for "2296" as the bill number. Bill aimed at protecting animal researchers scaled back J.M. BROWN - SANTA CRUZ SENTINEL STAFF WRITER Article Launched: 04/15/2008 01:33:04 AM PDT Legislation aimed at curtailing violence against scientists who conduct experiments on animals is being retooled to address concerns that it would cloak research laboratories at UC Santa Cruz and elsewhere in secrecy. Assemblyman Gene Mullin, who chairs the Select Committee on Biotechnology, acknowledged Monday that the bill's major obstacle will be satisfying fears about the effect on public access to information about research activities at academic and nonprofit labs. The bill would also

cover commercial research labs, but not farms, meat packing plants or similar businesses. At UC's request, the San Mateo Democrat proposed the measure Feb. 21 after physical attacks by animal rights advocates on university researchers in Los Angeles and Berkeley, which were followed by what police call a home invasion attempt by six masked demonstrators against a UCSC researcher. UC officials laud the bill as much-needed protection for employees who are conducting medical studies designed to treat and cure illnesses, but animal rights groups and First Amendment advocates complain the measure would have a chilling effect on public access, as well as demonstrators who protest legally. As the bill moves to the Assembly's Judiciary Committee this week, Mullin said clean-up language would strike original provisions that exempted information about researchers from public disclosure laws. He said he is still hammering out how to balance between the right to privacy of researchers and their families with the public's right to know what kind of experiments are being conducted and who is funding them. "We are not in the business of narrowing constitutional provisions," Mullin said. But Steven V.W. Beckwith, UC's vice president for system wide research, said free speech is a two-way street. He said the university would not tolerate violence against employees by "terrorists" who call their actions freedom of expression and said the bill was being modeled on legislation designed to protect abortion providers and other healthcare workers. "As a university, we really cherish free speech, but [this] issue isn't free speech, the

issue is violence," he said during a teleconference with Mullin and other UC officials. "The bill before us should make it much easier to preserve the rights and safety of [researchers'] families." A UCSC biomedical researcher whose home was targeted by animal rights activists declined Monday to discuss the legislation, which she said she was not even aware of. Police are still investigating who was responsible for banging on the front door of her Santa Cruz residence and hitting her husband on the arm with an unknown object. Researchers at UC Berkeley and UCLA have also been the target of numerous incidents, including a firebombing and other property damage at their homes. Santa Cruz police are working with authorities in both cities to determine if there are links. Calling the incidents "the greatest threat to academic freedom that I've seen in the history of this campus," UCSC Chancellor George R. Blumenthal, said the bill, if passed,

"could serve as deterrent for new cases." AB 2296 would make it a misdemeanor to harm or intimidate a researcher who works with animals, including publicly posting the names, photographs, home addresses and home telephone numbers of researchers online or elsewhere. Anyone convicted under the legislation could face up to a year in county jail and fines up to $25,000. The bill also allows researchers or their employers to seek an injunction against animal rights advocates or Web sites publishing their photos or personal information. Jerry Vlasak, a Southern California physician who acts as a spokesperson for the Animal Liberation Press Office, said the bill will not deter underground activists from illegally entering private property to set lab animals free or conduct other demonstrations. Rather, he said the measure is aimed at advocates who are "trying to obey the law" by conducting legal protests and boycotts. The Animal

Liberation Front has not claimed responsibility for the UCSC attack, but Vlasak said the fact that lawmakers are getting involved in protecting researchers has served the group's purpose because it has clearly "made these people feel uncomfortable" about the experiments he said take place "in these torture chambers they call laboratories." Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, said he was sympathetic to the university wanting to protect the well-being of employees, but said restrictions on speech, including requiring Web site operators to take down information posted about researchers, smacks of "prior restraint against the press." He said public access laws already contain protections that balance personal privacy rights against a compelling need for the public to know about government-funded activities. Contact J.M. Brown at 429-2410 or jbrown. Contact: Press Officer Jerry Vlasak, MD Animal Liberation Press Office 6320 Canoga Avenue #1500 Woodland Hills, CA 91367 818.227-5022 www.animalliberationpressoffice.org press

Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Mobile. Try it now.