Call for Murder of Scientists Shows Vicious Side of Animal Rights, say Medical Advocates

Call for Murder of Scientists Shows Vicious Side of Animal Rights, say Medical Advocates

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- The call to assassinate research scientists, heard on Sunday's 60 Minutes, is a call to action for Congress to give law enforcement the powers necessary to investigate and arrest those who would carry out such crimes, according to Americans for Medical Progress, a nonprofit organization that counters the animal rights threat to biomedical research.

"The outrageous statement by Jerry Vlasak is not new, and confirms what we in the biomedical research community have known for years: that there truly is a violent element among the animal rights movement that would stop at nothing -- even murder -- to achieve their agenda," said John Young, Director of Comparative Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and chairman of Americans for Medical Progress. "We are seeing the dark, vicious side of animal rights activism and it is appalling."

In the 60 Minutes interview, scheduled to be aired on CBS Sunday, Vlasak, a spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front, told Ed Bradley that "If they won't stop when you ask them nicely, they don't stop when you demonstrate to them what they're doing is wrong, then they should be stopped using whatever means are necessary."

This is the latest in a long series of threats against scientists who study research animals in their quest for medical advances. Vlasak told an animal rights meeting in 2003, "I think for five lives, ten lives, 15 human lives, we could save a million, two million, ten million nonhuman lives." At the time, Vlasak was a spokesperson for Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine, an animal rights group that works in close association with PETA. Last month, Vlasak told a Senate committee that he stood behind that statement and in fact expanded his threat to include families of research scientists. "These are not innocent lives," he testified.

On 60 Minutes, the FBI confirms that there is a serious domestic terror threat posed by those willing to commit crimes for the sake of animal rights. The FBI is concerned that the call by animal rights activists to kill scientists will be acted upon by "lone wolves," and notes there may have been such an attempt in a series of bombings in California in 2003.

"It is just a matter of time before someone is killed. The attacks against scientists are increasing in intensity. We aren't talking about peaceful pickets: already there have been arsons, break-ins, thefts, bombs, even beatings on the doorsteps of scientists' homes. Biomedical researchers and their loved ones are being threatened simply because of their work, which is providing new treatments and cures for us all," said Jacquie Calnan, president of Americans for Medical Progress. "Americans need to urge Congress and the President to pass laws to ensure that everything possible is done to protect scientists and their families."

Source: Americans for Medical Progress

CONTACT: Jacquie Calnan, AMP, +1-703-836-9595 ext. 100,
amp@amprogress.org

Web site: http://www.amprogress.org/

NOTE TO EDITORS: John Young and Jacquie Calnan are available for comment. Call Americans for Medical Progress 703 836 9595 x100; email amp@amprogress.org.

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