UCLA researcher: I won't be bullied by threats from animal rights activists

When UCLA neuroscientist David Jentsch was a grad student, he never expected his life as an academic would require around-the-clock armed guards, or a closed-circuit TV inside his bedroom so he could keep constant watch over his home.

But the high-powered security proved necessary again this month when the researcher, who experiments on monkeys, opened a letter left in his mailbox to discover razor blades and a death threat.
“We follow you on campus,” Jentsch recalled the note reading. “One day, when you’re walking by, we’ll come up behind you, and cut your throat.”

Activists claimed the razors were tainted with the virus that causes AIDS, though it hasn’t been confirmed by officials. University officials have said the latest threat, confirmed by UCLA on Tuesday, is under investigation by the FBI and UCLA police.

But the 38-year-old professor has been through this before. Last year, he woke up to an orange flash and a car alarm. He ran outside to find his car had been blown up.

Twice a month, animal rights activists in ski masks post up outside his home, chanting “murder.” Last Halloween, neighborhood trick-or-treaters were handed flyers with images of bloodied animal subjects.
“If you go to the house down the street, there’s a monster who lives there,” children were told.

The tactics, Jentsch said in an interview at his office, are part of an intensifying effort by extremists to halt animal research at the university. Molotov cocktail-like devices have been left near researchers’ homes and under their cars, and in one case, a professor’s window was smashed and a garden hose inserted to flood her home.

Some of Jentsch’s colleagues have opted to alter their research, or move, but the neuroscientist says the latest incident has motivated him to press on.

“They’re absolutely determined. This is not a joke to them,” he said. “But this is the work I feel morally obligated to do.”

Since his car was torched, Jentsch has become the face of animal research at UCLA, founding an organization to voice support for humane animal research, and organizing a public rally for the cause.

His tenacity comes with its drawbacks. He has to vary his routes to work and switch up his parking spots. When he has dinner parties, he has to remind his guests that they’ll be checked in at the gate by security guards with guns. After moving into his new home, he made the rounds with his new neighbors, informing them of his work, and warning them of the protests that would inevitably follow him to the neighborhood.

He keeps the door outside his office pod locked. During a recent morning, the sound of footsteps in the hall brought Jentsch to his feet. “Who’s there?” he shouted as he turned the corner, his demeanor softening once he discovered it was just one of his students waiting outside.

Jentsch uses vervet monkeys in his research on methamphetamine addiction and tobacco dependence in teens, along with cognitive disabilities affecting schizophrenia patients. University officials say their animal research is subject to strict oversight, but the work has come under fire by animal rights activists, who say it amounts to abuse.

Some of Jentsch’s work has included administering methamphetamine to monkeys and then withdrawing them from the drug, a project that includes killing about half a dozen of the primates each year for postmortems.

RELATED:

Professor stands up to animal rights protesters.

--Robert Faturechi at UCLA

Comments

[M]

first monkeys next stem cells. vegans are destroying the world!

[Rede]

We have to infiltrate and shut down those animal rights groups. That kind of criminal behavior cannot ever be tolerated, especially now in the age of terrorism. Those groups must be dismantled and their members thrown in front of military tribunal.

[Matt]

I would like to see the names and addresses of all these animal rights nutcases published so we can all go pay them a visit.

[Patriot]

As a UCLA alumnus, this guy doing research is the ANIMAL here.

Animal research, especially at UCLA, has NOTHING to do with actually HELPING people, and everything about MONEY -- research grant MONEY. The activists (which I'm not) wouldn't be so mad if there were not something to mad ABOUT -- namely, torturing primates who are VERY much like humans, who feel pain, fear, and terror.

We don't NEED this kind "research", and Jentsch and his GREED can go sell used cars for all we care. Just get the hell out of UCLA, and take your precious MONEY and your LIES with you.

[Robert]

Professor David Jentsch is a hero!

[peoplefirst]

It's amazing that the headline calls them "activists". If they're activists so is FARC and Al-Qaeda which both use identical tactics - they're just smarter and organized. Gandhi was an activist, Al Sharpton is an activist, there's a different term for home grown idiots who use violence and intimidation to subvert the laws and the will of law abiding citizens. This is a newspaper, somebody can look it up.

[tee kaz]

GOOD FOR HIM!! Keep doing what you're doing Doc! These "animal rights activists" are only that because they can't get a normal JOB! I wish we could test everything on them.

Go stand by the paper mills, and express how much pain that darn tree goes through as it's being chopped and used for the paper you make your STUPID signs on.

My aunt became a vegan, now she's in the hospital because of malnutrition. Good job idiots, keep promoting "soy", and vitamins.

[Mr 'nuff]

No one deserves their car been blown up; but come on 'nuff's enough. Let the animals alone man. I don't want that drug, nor do the monkeys. Can't you see that dude! Imagine you were locked in that cage, injected with that stuff, then chopped apart. No fair!

[Peter Ghery]

Of course he's "morally obligated."

He makes tons of money giving monkeys drugs -- a job few else will do and is in high demand.

Don't kid yourself, it's about the benjamins.

[jsa26]

Sounds more like terrorism than extremism to me.

From dictionary.com "the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes. "

It should be dealt with swiftly by law enforcement.

[Get Planted]

I would like to know where these jerks live so can go picket outside their house

[dash]

I agree with the fact that we need to stop the experimenting on the primates and other wild animals. Instead, let's experiment on the prison inmates and the human animal. I mean, while the monkey can feel pain and whatnot, it can't tell us its feelings. With humans, they can tell us what they are experiencing and it can be logged. Then we can slice them up to find out exactly how the drugs affect humans. Let's start with the animal terrorists, er, I mean, activists.

[anthony]

I work in the substance abuse world and this research is a complete waste of money. We already know the mechanisms of addiction. Money is much more efficiently spent if we focus on prevention and risk-reduction. This idiot just wants his paper published. Stop people from using these drugs in the first place instead of wasting taxpayer dollars.

[KrissyinLA]

If those of you commenting against the "animal activists" would do your research, you would find that UCLA is notorious for the abuse of their "animal test subjects". Its appalling what they do to animals, all in the name of money... Yes money, no research.

If we want to really see the affects of drugs and whatnot on man, then lets use prisoners with life sentances for test subjects... I can't think of a better way for them to pay back their debt to society can you? Oh and "M"... conservative right wing fantical christian much???