A bill that would criminalize some of the key methods used by animal rights protestors to target researchers cleared a California senate committee yesterday (Aug 14). Bill linkurl:AB 2296;http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_2251-2300/ab_2296_bill_20080811_amended_sen_v92.html makes it a misdemeanor to enter a researcher's home or publish their personal information or that of their immediate families to encourage violent crime against them. University of California administrators yesterday urged passage of the bill in the State Senate's Public Safety Committee. According to linkurl:__The Chronicle of Higher Education__,;http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/08/4253n.htm M.R.C. Greenwood, a former University of California provost, told the committee that animal rights protesters were scaring the state's biomedical researchers and interfering with their work. In a written statement, Greenwood said that the bill was a "critically important first step towards giving law enforcement and the research community the legal tools necessary to help investigate offenders and combat the unlawful tactics of these terrorists." "We believe it is of critical...
Interested in reading more?
Become a Member of
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!