Destructive lab attack sends a wake-up call

Animal rights activists hit University of Minnesota psychology lab.

By Beth Azar
Monitor staff

The University of Minnesota psychology department thought it was well-protected from acts of vandalism. It was particularly wary of animal rights activists who had targeted the department in the past.

That's why a destructive break-in and animal release by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) was especially shocking.

The April 5 attack, which also hit the university's neuroscience building, is serving as a wake-up call to animal research laboratories around the country, say people familiar with the case.Vandals representing ALF destroyed equipment and stole research data. In addition, they abducted more than 100 research animals from the psychology lab.

Preliminary estimates put the damage at more than $2 million. And that doesn't include lost time, lost data as well as the destruction of experiments, including one psychology student's dissertation research.

"At least several month's worth of work has been lost," says Bruce Overmier, PhD, director of the psychology lab that was hardest hit, and a member of APA's Board of Directors. "It was very distressing and what's worse, the people who took the animals turned them loose in the wild. Clearly they don't care about the animals. They took them out to die."

In fact, it appears that many of the stolen animals were released in a field near the university, some were found by the side of the road. Fourteen of 27 pigeons were recovered, and several of the stolen rats have been found dead.

"Psychologically, it was very disturbing," says University of Minnesota psychology department administrator Jo Matson. "We realize now we're vulnerable. And we have to conduct ourselves differently. We thought it was very secure, but it still was pretty accessible to students and people using the sites. Grad students and honors undergraduates would also commonly work late in the evenings. Now I don't think they feel very safe down there."

The Minnesota incident "seems to have signaled to us a return to the level of violence we hoped wouldn't happen again," says Barbara Rich, executive vice president of the National Association of Biomedical Research, which tracks animal rights activity.

In fact, Rich explains, destructive, violent protests all but ended after the federal government passed a law in 1992 making such acts of vandalism federal offenses. Instead, animal rights activists have protested animal research with sit-ins, picketing and verbal threats--particularly targeting neuroscience and psychology researchers--which have tended to remain nonviolent.

Prior to the April incident, Minnesota had been the target of several of these types of protests. In February, for example, protesters chained themselves together inside the office of psychologist and primate researcher Marilyn Carroll, PhD, and one student seeking a dialogue on animal rights issues dangled on a rope from the roof of a university building for several hours.

"This was very costly in time and waste, but it will not dissuade us, we will continue. Terrorism is not the way we try to accomplish things in this country."

Bruce Overmier
University of Minnesota

With this most recent act, the vandals appeared to be saying that research laboratories are not impervious to these kinds of tactics, says Rich.

Minnesota authorities are pursuing the vandals with vigor--in May they summoned Kevin Kjonaas, the spokesman for ALF who is based in Minneapolis, before a grand jury--and the Minnesota Senate passed a law within weeks of the break-in making merely taking responsibility for "unauthorized release of animals" a crime punishable by up to a year in jail plus civil damages.

No amount of prosecution, however, can bring back a sense of safety to the students and faculty or restore their research, says Overmier. The loss of the animals in his lab damaged or destroyed three experiments being conducted there. One, a doctoral dissertation on the neurochemistry of learning and memory, was interrupted in the middle and will need to start from scratch. The student had spent months training the 27 pigeons that were stolen and although 14 have been recovered it's unclear if they can be used again.

"It puts this student at a severe disadvantage," says Overmier, who is withholding the names of the students affected. The department will do everything it can, however, to help her salvage the data she has and rerun any part of the experiment she needs to.

Despite the psychological stress of the break-in, the students affected are continuing their work, says Overmier.

"This was very costly in time and waste, but it will not dissuade us, we will continue," says Overmier. "Terrorism is not the way we try to accomplish things in this country."Y



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