US physician fuels animal extremism fire

A call for the assassination of research scientists by Jerry Vlasak on the American TV show '60 Minutes' has prompted the 'Americans for Medical Progress' (AMP) group, a non-profit organisation opposed to any threats that animal rights may pose to biomedical research, to call for US Congress to give law enforcement 'the powers necessary to investigate and arrest those who would carry out such crimes'.

Vlasak, a spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front and former spokesman for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), said: 'If they won't stop when you ask them nicely, and 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'.

However, the comment can hardly be called unexpected with Vlasak having a history of making such remarks. In 2003 he told an animal rights convention that he would 'endorse the murder of physicians whose research work requires the use of lab rats and other animals', claiming that 'for five, 10, 15 human lives, we could save a million, two million, 10 million non-human lives'. He recently told a Senate committee that he stood behind such statements expanded his threat to the families of research scientists.

The website of CBS, (Columbia Broadcasting System), the network that broadcasts 60 Minutes, states: 'Vlasak says he is not going to do that ['stop' a research scientist], pointing out he is a physician. "My role in the movement is not to go out and do that, but to explain to the mainstream media and to the public in general why these people are doing what they're doing".

'Asked if he wants someone to go out there and kill, Vlasak says, "I want people who care about animals to do what's necessary to stop their exploitation, to stop their suffering".

'Vlasak says someone who believes that the life of an animal is not akin to the life of a human being is "species-ist", [which] he says is akin to [being] racist or sexist. Animals, he says, should be accorded the same rights as human beings, despite their place on the food chain.

''"People liked owning slaves too. That doesn't make it right", Vlasak said.'

Jacquie Calnan, president of AMP, belives that '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 pro-viding new treatments and cures for us all. Americans need to urge Congress and the President to pass laws to ensure that everything possible is done to protect scientists and their families.'

The FBI has said that there is 'a serious domestic terror threat posed by those willing to commit crimes for the sake of animal rights, and is concerned that calls to kill scientists will be acted upon by "lone wolves"', which it believes could have been the case with a series of bombings in California in 2003.