UCLA campus police and the FBI are investigating an Animal Liberation Front claim that extremists opposed to the use of animals in laboratory research were responsible for torching a UCLA vanpool vehicle last week in Irvine.

"I am deeply disturbed that, yet again, extremists have resorted to acts of violence in an attempt to achieve their goal to end all laboratory research involving animals," UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said. "In this most recent apparent act of terror against UCLA, the extremists have crossed yet another threshold and directed violence at individuals and property not associated with animal research."

Block added: "We cannot and we will not let the behavior of misguided individuals deter us in performing research that is conducted with strict federal oversight and that leads to lifesaving treatments. What we do intend to do is continue to aggressively pursue every legal means possible of exposing them and putting a stop to their deplorable tactics."

--
full story:
http://www.newsroom .ucla.edu/ portal/ucla/ chancellor- condemns- vanpool-fire- 52055.aspx

For Immediate Release
June 13, 2008

UCLA Van Goes Up In Flames
Animal Liberation Front Claims Action on Behalf of Tortured Primates in UCLA Labs

Irvine: In an anonymous communiqué received today by the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) claims to have set a flame 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

(To read the entire communiqué, visit www.animalliberationpressoffice.org/communiques_home.htm)

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. Clinical physicians seldom even bother to read such studies, which waste funds that could be used to treat patients or perform research likely to lead to cures for human ailments.

UCLA recently obtained a restraining order against a number of above-ground animal rights activists, as well as the ALF. Being a clandestine organization, the ALF is unlikely to either know or care about the restraining order. Inadvertently, in their attempts to crack down on legal, if 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."