Animal rights activists continue to advocate alternatives to animal research, especially in light of the attacks by protesters at UCLA in the last year.
Many UCLA community members have become increasingly aware of the controversy surrounding animal research in the last year.
Earlier this month, the Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for setting a UCLA vanpool vehicle on fire. That incident was the most recent in a string of attacks by animal rights activists.
In January, UCLA co-sponsored a workshop exploring alternatives to animal research with the John Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing.
Sonia Hingrajia, internal vice president of Bruins for Animals, said finding alternatives to animal testing is currently of the utmost importance.
Alternatives can be the reduction of animal testing, said Carol Howard, Johns Hopkins Center’s communications coordinator.
“But it also refers to the reduction of animals used and refining the methods to minimize pain and distress in animals,” Howard said.
Removing animal testing from the university entirely would be difficult.
“Animal research is in part responsible for the medical advancements in the last decade,” UCLA spokesman Phil Hampton said. “In many cases, there are no alternatives to the humane research of animals.”
UCLA complies with all national animal testing laws, Hampton said.
The Animal Welfare Act requires researchers to search for alternative methods to the use of animals before considering their use in experiments.
Before any laboratory animals are used for research at UCLA, the researcher must demonstrate the scientific necessity and the absolute need to use the animals for that research, in order to comply with the Animal Welfare Act, Hampton said.
To ensure the humane treatment of animals, the UCLA Chancellor’s Animal Research Committee reviews research and must approve before researchers can utilize animals in their research.
Despite the committee’s efforts, activists have staged several protests in the last year against animal research.
The Animal Liberation Brigade, an animal rights activist group, claimed responsibility for an attempted firebombing of UCLA Professor Arthur Rosenbaum’s car on June 24, 2007.
The activist group responded to what they believed was an inhumane treatment of animals at Rosenbaum’s ophthalmology laboratory, according to Daily Bruin archives.
Rosenbaum was not the only UCLA professor targeted.
Edythe London, a professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences, has also been targeted.
London’s Beverly Hills home was flooded in October last year by the Animal Liberation Front.
In February, a temporary restraining order was granted by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge against specific groups of activists accused of targeting UCLA faculty.
A bill titled “California Animal Enterprise Protection Act” was proposed after the court order.
The bill would increase the ability of law enforcement to protect animal researchers from harassment, according to the UCLA Newsroom Web site. The bill is still under state senate review.
Hampton said that despite the protests, all animal research done at the university is humane.
“I want to emphasize that research involving animals is conducted in compliance with federal regulations and that harassment directed at UCLA researchers is not appropriate,” Hampton said.
Hingrajia said violent protests are ineffective.
“We don’t believe that attacking people will help our cause. It kind of hurts the animal rights movement because it gives it a bad reputation,” Hingrajia said.
Meanwhile, alternative methods to animal research continue to be explored.
“There are certainly various types of alternatives, and there is certainly a great deal of progress that has been made and can be made,” Howard said.