• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

Animal rights protesters vandalized the home of two UCLA researchers last week, according to a police report filed by the victims.

On-campus demonstrations that coincided with World Week for Animals in Laboratories were followed by protests in some researchers’ neighborhoods Monday.

John Schlag, a neurobiology professor, and Madeleine Schlag-Rey, a neurobiology researcher, two targets of animal rights activists, said their home was damaged by protesters.

At 10:15 p.m. Monday night, Schlag said they heard a lot of noise on the street, followed by loud banging and kicking on their door.

“The way it proceeded ... we felt that the door was going to be kicked in,” Schlag-Rey said.

The Schlags, whose research focuses on the mechanisms of human sight, filed a police report with the Los Angeles Police Department that listed a broken street lamp and a broken door window as a result of the vandalism. Neighbors told the police that the suspects were wearing masks and dark clothing.

It is not yet known whether anyone has been arrested in connection to the incident.

The following morning, the Schlags noticed that a screen in the front of their house had been broken by a large rock thrown from the street.

“We could have been killed (by the rock),” Schlag-Rey said.

The Schlags have sent a photograph of the broken screen and the rock to the LAPD in order to add it to the police report.

Though the police report labels the suspects as “protesters,” Erica Sutherland, a member of the loosely organized animal rights group that ran the past week’s events on campus, said members of her organization “don’t participate in any illegal activity.”

Sutherland, a third-year sociology student, said that she and other Students for Animal Liberation members were involved in demonstrations outside researchers’ homes where protesters “educated neighbors.”

“I think it’s incredibly important that neighbors know that they are living near animal abusers,” Sutherland said.

Sutherland, who said she was involved in demonstrations at another professor’s home at about 7 p.m., said her fellow protesters were “friendly (and) happy to dialogue” with neighbors.

Joaquin Fuster, the professor whose home Sutherland was protesting at, was out of the country and could not be reached for comment.

Sutherland explained that she sees home protests as “completely fair” because the animals that are utilized in research can’t escape their cages, and so the researchers shouldn’t be able to hide or escape either.

Schlag-Rey had a different view. She said she sees the home protests, along with fliers distributed in their neighborhood that label the Schlags as “fanatics,” more as a means of intimidation.

She added that though the protests were aimed at turning their neighbors against them, demonstrators succeeded in angering neighbors who were “outraged” by the vandalism.

Sutherland said that neighbors she encountered during the home protest she was involved in were friendly and willing to listen to what she had to say.

“I thought it was a really positive and peaceful protest,” Sutherland said of the demonstration in which she was involved.

The Schlags agree that animal rights activists can be effective.

“When they are reasonable, they are doing a lot of good,” Schlag-Rey said.

She added that animal rights advocates have alerted researchers to a lot of important animal abuse issues.

While the Schlags recognize the benefit of these protesters’ work, they said that their research is also important.

The Schlags’ studies on visual systems and eye movement in monkeys and humans may help researchers better understand disorders like dyslexia and hyperactivity, they said.

Schlag-Rey added that knowing where visual centers are located in the brain is useful for neurosurgeons who remove brain tumors; this information would allow them to steer clear of damaging patients’ visual capabilities.

The Schlags emphasize that the protesters actions will not deter them from their research.

“We as researchers are not intimidated – we are not hiding,” Schlag-Rey said.