Animal Rights Activist Arrested on Bomb Charges

An animal rights activist was arrested today on charges that she planted a pipe bomb in an attempt to kill the chairman of a surgical equipment company that experiments on dogs, police said.

Police said 33-year-old Fran Stephanie Trutt of New Hyde Park, N.Y., was arrested after she allegedly planted a radio-controlled pipe bomb at U.S. Surgical Corp. just after midnight.

Trutt was charged with attempted murder, possession of explosives and manufacturing a bomb. She was jailed on $500,000 bail.

Lt. Jeff Finch said the device was a “sophisticated bomb capable of killing anyone near it.” Trutt planned to detonate the bomb as the company’s chairman, Leon Hirsch, walked by on his way to work, Finch said.

“Ms. Trutt is a self-styled member of animal rights groups and considers the policies of U.S. Surgical to be an affront to animal rights,” Finch said.

Hirsch said the bomb was found at the side of the building, 10 feet from his parking space. He said about 200 people were working in the plant overnight. A bomb squad was called in to remove the device.

The company has been criticized for using anesthetized live dogs to demonstrate its surgical staplers, which are used instead of stitches to close wounds.

“I think what we and other companies should be doing is telling the world what these animal activists are really like,” Hirsch said. “The public thinks they’re a wonderful group of little old ladies, protecting puppies and pound dogs, and so they send in their $5.”

“But nothing could be further from the truth. These are hard-core animal extremists, who believe the rights of animals supersede the rights of humans.”