US: Professor stands up to animal rights activists

As soon as he heard his car alarm blare and saw the orange glow through his bedroom window, University of California, Los Angeles, neuroscientist J David Jentsch knew that his fears had come true - he had become the latest victim in a series of violent incidents targeting scientists who use animals in biomedical research. But unlike most scientists, Jentsch decided to push back, writes Larry Gordon in the LA Times.

"Obviously, someone who does the work I do in this environment expects that it's possible, indeed likely, that it would have happened," said Jentsch, who uses vervet monkeys in his research on treatments for schizophrenia and drug addiction. After similar incidents, other UCLA scientists become almost reclusive as security and public curiosity around them grew.

But Jentsch, an associate professor of psychology and psychiatry, has founded an organisation at UCLA to voice support for research that uses animals in what he calls a humane, carefully regulated way. He is organising a pro-research campus rally on 22 April, a date chosen because animal rights activists had scheduled their own UCLA protest that day.
Full report on the LA Times site