Scientists Brace for Animal Activism
Legal and illegal animal rights actions continue
Animal rights activists will not go away, and researchers must prepare to be targeted, according to three scientists whose organizations have developed guidelines for responding to this movement. Animal rights campaigners are taking a long-term view in their crusade to end all human use of animals and scientists need to be aware of their own vulnerability, the scientists say. Lobbyists are already pursuing legal avenues to extend rights once reserved for humans to other animals and are meeting with some success. "We should all keep in mind that [the work of animal rights groups] is not directed toward the welfare of animals," says Stephen Zola, director of the Yerkes Primate Research Center at Emory University, Atlanta. "It's toward the abolition of the use of animals in any domain."