New protections for animal researchers

California lawmakers have adopted new protections for animal researchers. Patrick McGreevy reports from Sacramento:

On Friday, three weeks after firebomb attacks on UC Santa Cruz animal researchers and months after vandalism at a UCLA professor's home, state senators unanimously approved an emergency measure to strengthen laws protecting academics against violence and intimidation.

It would create a new misdemeanor charge for entering residential property of an academic researcher with the intent to intimidate or interfere with research.

The measure also would make it a misdemeanor to publish information on the Internet that describes an academic researcher or his or her family members, or gives the location of their residence with the intent that another person use the information to commit violence or make threats.

...

The home of a UCLA researcher incurred more than $20,000 in damage after being flooded by animal-rights activists who inserted a garden hose into the house. An incendiary device destroyed a car outside the home of a UC Santa Cruz researcher and a firebomb exploded nearby on the front porch of another researcher's home.

The attacks are believed to have been orchestrated by activists who regard the use of animals in research as inhumane. Lawmakers say the targeting of academics in such ways is intolerable.

...
The bill, AB 2296 by Assemblyman Gene Mullin (D-San Mateo), is subject to final approval in the Assembly before it goes to the governor, whose signature would make it effective immediately.

Comments

[Brien Comerford]

It's high time that the animals that these researchers "work on" should be liberated. The efficacy of research on human tissue and skin cells will be more proficient and totally bereft of cruelty.

[Tom]

Work on human tissues and skin cells is used *alongside* the animal research in the development of new medicines. Unfortunately tissues cultures tell you nothing of the complex interaction between organs, or even of the full working of a single entire organ, and is thus limited in its application.

Animal research is responsible for commonly used treatments like Penicillin, Insulin and the Meningitis Vaccine, as well as more recent medicines against cancer such as Herceptin and Gardisil. It is carefully regulated in this country and should continue without harassment from a small minority.

[Downeygodd]

I am constantly amazed by the animal rights claims that this science can be done using non-animal methods.
Scientists are the most rational people on the planet. They use animals in research for one reason, and one reason only - because it works. If it didn't work, they wouldn't use them.
Pointing to all of the other methodologies constantly used by scientists as able to replace animals in research is a bit like saying that because the forward pass is available, football teams don't need to use the run.