Vandalism on behalf of critters

Re “Animal rights group says it flooded home,” Oct. 30

It’s happened again -- yet another UCLA scientist has faced an ugly and menacing threat at home. A communique from Animal Liberation Front activists claims that they flooded professor Edythe London’s home Oct. 20, but their first choice would have been to burn her house to the ground. Perhaps we can glean small comfort that even animal rights militants are bright enough not to commit arson. The media were alerted to the attack by activist Jerry Vlasak, who maintains that killing scientists would be morally justifiable. It strains belief that this man is a physician who has taken the Hippocratic Oath, or that the animal liberation movement would accept him as a spokesman for their cause.

The malice of this attack and so many similar violent acts claimed by the Animal Liberation Front reminds us how delusional these militants can be and just how dangerous they are to public safety and welfare -- and to advances in science and medicine.

Jacquie Calnan

President

Americans for

Medical Progress

Alexandria, Va.

The Times ignores information that illustrates the egregious suffering of non-human primates and other sentient animals being addicted to methamphetamines, nicotine and other drugs. Treatments for such addictions are well known but underfunded; still, London and her ilk waste millions of dollars on ridiculous animal experiments that shed no light on human illness (money not just from Philip Morris USA but from taxpayer-funded grants as well).

If the public could see the animals’ pain and learn of their lifetimes of confinement only to further the academic careers of non-clinicians such as London, they would be enraged. It’s a sorry state of affairs that compassionate activists must expose these absurdities by the use of flood and fire. Such actions would be unnecessary if not for the refusal of UCLA officials to talk with mainstream activists advocating on behalf of the voiceless and powerless animals being exploited, abused and killed.

Jerry W. Vlasak

Woodland Hills