Van targeted by extremists declared safe

By
Phil Hampton
2/10/2009

A UCLA commuter van targeted by anti–animal research extremists was declared safe by bomb specialists who searched it today for explosive devices in a West Los Angeles neighborhood.

Explosives experts with the Los Angeles Police Department and the FBI searched the vehicle near Emerson Middle School, where the driver is an employee. The van, which had minor damage to its paint, was towed to an undisclosed location where the FBI, in cooperation with UCLA police, is continuing the investigation.

Extremists opposed to the use of animals in research posted a claim on a website on Feb. 5 that a UCLA commuter van had been vandalized in San Clemente. The claim also suggested that a "surprise" had been placed under the vehicle.

The van, whose current driver is a San Clemente resident, was subsequently traced to the West Los Angeles neighborhood today, where police ordered the inspection as a precaution.

As part of a campaign of illegal harassment directed at UCLA personnel in recent years, anti–animal research extremists have claimed responsibility for firebombing a UCLA commuter van in Irvine, torching vehicles in the driveway of a Palms-area home and, on several occasions, placing improvised incendiary devices under the vehicles and on the doorsteps of UCLA researchers.

UCLA has strongly condemned these tactics as reprehensible and beyond contempt.

The campus remains committed to legal and humane animal research that is critical to the development of treatments and cures for medical conditions such as AIDS, cancer and Parkinson's disease.

UCLA operates 160 commuter vans serving six Southern California counties. Of the more than 1,600 passengers and drivers, approximately 120 work close to campus but are not UCLA employees.