Schwarzenegger Passes Law Protecting Animal Researchers
20 November 2008
by Anai Rhoads
AnaiRhoads.org -- In September, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a state law that protects all researchers using animals in their laboratories.
The Researcher Protection Act of 2008 (AB 2296) is an attempt to thwart the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and other groups that rescue animals. The act, which was strongly supported by the University of California at Santa Cruz, was enacted just a few months after a series of firebomb attacks took place in Los Angeles and Santa Cruz targeting researchers at the university.
One attack was at the home of David Feldheim, a molecular biologist, whose name was listed in a pamphlet that was distributed days before the attack by an animal liberation group. The pamphlets, which were scattered around the area and in a local coffee shop, included the names, addresses and other personal information of several researchers who worked at the university.
A collective statement released by the Foundation for Biomedical Research, read: "Home harassments have increased in recent years, as animal rights extremists have shifted their focus from attacking laboratories to attacking individual homes. Such attacks pose a significant threat to researchers' safety which is why Congress passed the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act in 2006, expanding the protections for researchers and companies targeted by animal rights extremists. While there have been many attacks and threats against researchers since the passing of the law, no one has yet been prosecuted."
The university insists that the law does not infringe on free speech and defends their stance in their fact sheet:
AB 2296 will help state law enforcement and prosecutors to protect academic researchers and their families who are victims of threatening and destructive tactics employed by extremist activists, without jeopardizing legitimate and lawful expressions of free speech. The legislation as signed into law, would add criminal provisions to state law, as a counterpart to existing federal and state laws, regarding the commission of certain activities intended to chill, prevent the exercise of, or interfere with a researcher’s academic freedom. AB 2296 will:
- Declare that unlawful acts that threaten and intimidate researchers or their families at their personal residence are not protected by the First Amendment and are a direct threat to the academic researcher's constitutional right to academic freedom.
- Enact a new misdemeanor prohibiting any person from publishing information describing or depicting an academic researcher or his or her immediate family, or the location of an academic researcher or his or her immediate family, with the intent that another person imminently use the information to commit a crime involving violence of a threat of violence.
- Enact a new misdemeanor trespass law, making it a violation for any person to enter the residential real property of an academic researcher for the purpose of chilling, preventing the exercise of, or interfering with the researcher's academic freedom.
- Define "academic researcher" as any person lawfully engaged in academic research who is a student, trainee, or employee of UC, CSU, an accredited California community college, or a Western Association of Schools and Colleges accredited, degree-granting, nonprofit institution.
It is now a misdemeanor to enter any area where researchers reside or work and/or publish any personal details about researchers or their family members if the intent appears "threatening." Despite what the university contends, many would argue that this law is in fact a violation of free speech rights and may be easily abused or lead to further irrelevant government spying.
In America, tens of millions of animals are used each year, both in federally and privately funded experiments. The Animal Welfare Act (AWA), intended to protect animals in the U.S., is rarely enforced. In addition, the AWA does not protect rodents, reptiles, livestock or fowl. By comparison, the European Commission proposed legislation this month to strengthen the protection of animals used in scientific experiments.
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