Animal-Rights Violence Has Schools Turning to Courts

Battle pits free-speech rights against safety
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 28, 2008 3:48 PM CST
Animal-Rights Violence Has Schools Turning to Courts
A monkey looks out from its bars after a plastic surgery operation in this file photo. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)   (Getty Images)

In recent months, animal-rights activists have strapped a firebomb under a UCLA professor’s car and flooded another’s home in a campaign to intimidate the school into ending experiments on primates. A judge has issued several restraining orders as the university tries to protect researchers, Newsweek reports, while protesters think their right to free speech is being attacked.

“It's laughable that someone willing to face a 30-year sentence for arson will be put off by a restraining order,” said an Animal Liberation Front webmaster. Individuals named in the restraining order say they’ll respect it, but say they intend to fight it in court. Though the ALF has claimed responsibility for several attacks, no arrests have been made. (More animal rights stories.)

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