The University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) cancer researcher whose home was invaded last Sunday, has commented on the attack to the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

The researcher, who remains unnamed for security purposes, told the Sentinel that her family was celebrating the birthday of one of her two small children in the front of the house Sunday afternoon, when six people began banging on the door and front porch. She rushed the children to the back of the house while her husband confronted the intruders.

"I am flabbergasted that people would target me. All our work we do with animals is regulated. They are treated well," the researcher, who reportedly uses mice in her research, told the Sentinel. She added that in the past several weeks, animal rights messages have been scrawled in chalk in front of her home and in front of colleagues' homes. A message sent out to UCSC students and faculty from university chancellor George Blumenthal earlier this month confirms that UCSC researchers received harassing phone calls, and university spokesperson Jim Burns told The Scientist that researchers' homes were vandalized with chalk on four separate occasions in the past month.

The researcher plans to continue conducting research and living in Santa Cruz, telling the Sentinel she'll "keep on keeping on" though her family was shaken by the attack. Burns said that the university is providing the researcher with "some measure of security."

Neither the Santa Cruz police nor officials at UCSC have said that Sunday's attack was perpetrated by animal rights activists, but Lt. Rudy Escalante told The Scientist that three UCSC students are being looked at as "people of interest" in the investigation. Burns said that UCSC is letting the Santa Cruz police conduct their investigation but added that "if in fact it turns out that our students have been involved in criminal wrongdoing, that pretty much automatically subjects them to the disciplinary process here."