Sullivan Blasts ‘Terrorist’ Acts Against Labs : Research: Secretary urges punishment of animal rights activists who disrupt biomedical studies.
Health and Human Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan on Monday urged biomedical researchers to join him in speaking out against “animal rights terrorists who have impeded life-enhancing research.”
“Human lives are at stake,” he said.
Pledging to lead the way, Sullivan also said his agency and the Justice Department are exploring ways to “guarantee” adequate punishment for those responsible for break-ins, bomb threats, arson and thefts at research facilities.
“We must make it clear that criminal trespass, destruction of property and other violations of the law simply will not be tolerated,” declared the increasingly activist Sullivan.
His remarks to several hundred applauding experimental biologists at a convention here were immediately echoed by D. Allan Bromley, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and an assistant to the President, who also addressed the group.
Sullivan has previously spoken only of the general benefits of animal research. “But the secretary has more and more become convinced of the importance of this and how damaging it (the movement) could be to researchers,” said an HHS spokesman.
The tone of Sullivan’s remarks surprised some animal rights activists. One of them gasped upon hearing Sullivan’s language.
“We certainly don’t agree that the animals rights movement is terrorist,” said Betsy Swart, special projects director in the Washington office of Friends of Animals.
“In fact, we think the real terrorists are those behind the closed doors in the labs,” she said.
After a low-keyed start, Sullivan has become increasingly vocal on health issues, most recently lambasting the tobacco industry for promoting a harmful product and food manufacturers for deceptive labeling.
“You and I must begin saying, in every conceivable forum, that humanely conducted animal research is important--indeed, critically important in our search for cures and treatments for AIDS, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia and other diseases, just as it was critically important for virtually every major biomedical discovery in the past.”
Only with such a counter-campaign can scientists turn the public tide against “the erroneous notion that biomedical research is cruel, that it employs animals carelessly and unnecessarily,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan did not specify what punitive measures HHS and Justice are seeking against violent animal rights activists.
Previously, the Justice Department has opposed a bill sponsored by Sen. Howell Heflin (D-Ala.) to make such actions a federal crime, punishable by fines of up to $25,000 and prison terms of up to 20 years. The Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent in November.
But with two similar bills now pending in the House, Bromley came out in support of the concept.
Sullivan said Monday that he had been “deeply saddened” by the plight of a Columbia University scientist whose country home was mysteriously burned to the ground after he received numerous anti-vivisectionist phone calls.
According to Sullivan, the researcher said: “I felt like quitting after the fire. I didn’t hear anybody saying, ‘Animal research is important.’ No congressman, no scientific leaders.”
