Thieves Got Goat Records, Doctor Says

The surgeon who transplanted a baboon heart into Baby Fae in 1984 suggested Tuesday that animal rights activists who have taken responsibility for stealing seven dogs and medical records from the Loma Linda University Medical Center did not get important documents.

“They snatched immunization records of our goat herds,” said Dr. Leonard L. Bailey, chief of pediatric cardiac surgery at Loma Linda, at a press conference. “I don’t think that has had a serious effect on our biomedical research.”

A group calling itself the Animal Liberation Front has claimed responsibility for the early Monday raid on an animal care facility here that university officials described as “an air-conditioned barn.” The raid does not rank with their best moves, Bailey said.

Animal Liberation Front members splashed red paint in the facility and defaced its walls with animal rights slogans, authorities said. Damage to the facility was estimated at $6,000 to $10,000. “They are scalawags, actually,” Bailey said. “They really need a spanking.”

Loma Linda officials said that the facility was used primarily to house goats that were being bred to provide hearts for transplant research.

Still, a spokeswoman for the animal group, Margo Tannenbaum of San Bernardino, said members telephoned her about the raid and described the research facility as a laboratory.

“We have milking machines in there and equipment used to mow lawns,” Bailey said. “They missed it if they were going for our laboratory.”

In a press release issued Monday, Animal Liberation Front members said that after reviewing documents stolen from the building, “We have reason to believe that Dr. Bailey had full prior knowledge that Baby Fae could not survive and, in fact, did not expect her to do so, based on his prior research.”

Said Bailey: “I doubt that any of them can interpret those documents accurately.”

David B. Hinshaw, president of the Loma Linda Medical Center, defended Bailey’s research at the press conference. “We all have complete confidence in Dr. Bailey, and the accusations that have been brought against him are totally unfounded and malicious.”

Also at the press conference were a dozen mothers with their children, who have received heart transplant surgery at Loma Linda over the last few years. Bailey called the group his fan club.

Among them was Yvonne Salazar, whose 6-year-old son, Fernie, wore a sandwich sign that read “I’m Me Because of Dr. Bailey.”

“It was dirty what they (ALF) did,” Salazar said. “If not for what Dr. Bailey has done, these children would all be dead.”