A state bill designed to protect researchers who conduct
animal testing from harassment by animal-rights activists will be reviewed by
the California State Assembly Judiciary committee today.

Assembly Bill 2296 proposes to prohibit the personal
information of University of California
animal researchers from being displayed on the Internet and would allow UC
officials to withhold such information from public records. The legislation
would also mandate harsher punishments for those who commit acts of violence or
harassment against researchers, making such acts a finable misdemeanor.

UCSD is home to a number of facilities that conduct scientific research using animal test subjects. A new bill would fortify laws protecting researchers. (Will Parson/Guardian)

Authored by Assemblyman Gene Mullin (D-South San Francisco),
the proposed legislation is a reaction to increased violence against UC
researchers over the past year.

Specific acts cited as reason for the bill include a
February incident during which six masked men disrupted the home of a UC Santa
Cruz biology professor and breast cancer researcher. The protestors attempted
to enter her home during a child’s birthday party and reportedly assaulted her
husband.

UCLA researchers and graduate students have also reported
personal threats, violence and harassing phone calls and e-mails. The wife of
one researcher received a box of razor blades and fur in the mail.
Additionally, several Molotov cocktails have been left near the homes of
faculty members, prompting the resignation of one professor and UCLA administrators to pursue restraining
orders against several animal-rights groups.

UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George Blumenthal said at a press
conference that research conducted using animals is highly regulated and
subject to strict standards.

“People get nervous with living specimens but this research
is very important for the future of health care,” Blumenthal said. “Addressing
the discomfort of that research with terror is unacceptable.”

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said that the harassment of UC
researchers disrupts important scientific progress.

“These scientists are doing very important medical research
and they should be free to pursue that research without the harassment of
themselves or their families,” he said. “The behavior we’re seeing is really
outrageous and we need to put an end to an intolerable situation.”

Steven Beckwith, UC system-wide vice president for research
and graduate studies, said in a teleconference this week that these activities
are comparable to terrorism.

“When someone comes into your house and threatens your
family or floods your home and threatens to set it on fire or kill you, we
refer to that as terrorism,” Beckwith said. “This is criminal behavior which is
intended to terrorize ordinary citizens, not free speech.”

Although federal legislation designed to protect researchers
currently exists, Block said that the proposed bill would protect researchers
more effectively and close a number of loopholes that activists have taken
advantage of in the past.

Concerns have been raised, however, over the degree to which
the bill would limit information accessible to the public.

Although the personal information of UC researchers can
currently be accessed through the National Institutes of Health — a federal
database — the text of the bill states, “No person, business or association
shall knowingly publicly post or publicly display on the Internet the home
address, home telephone number or image of any employee of an animal
enterprise.”

Mullin, however, said that certain limitations to the
release of public information are necessary to ensure the safety of UC
researchers.

“We are not in the business of narrowing constitutional
provisions,” Mullin said. “We’re trying to balance those protections along with
making sure researchers aren’t subject to dire consequences.”