Animal Activists Get More Militant

Groups Also Targeting More People Indirectly Involved In Research

(AP) 
ALF wants Forest to end ties with the British firm Huntingdon Life Sciences, which it says kills animals in testing. A Huntingdon spokesman did not respond to requests for comment, but the company has said it does not violate laws in its experiments. Forest officials also did not return requests for comment.

Jerry Vlasak, a physician and ALF sympathizer who operates a Web site in California that posts the group's communiques, said some of its members claimed responsibility for making the $20,000 donations with the stolen credit card of a Forest executive's wife.

Vlasak — who said he is not an ALF member, although he supports many animal welfare initiatives — said the group also has claimed responsibility for vandalizing a Forest plant in Inwood, on Long Island, last June.

ALF also claims it used a bullhorn at night for a week last October to harass a Forest Laboratories executive, glued the locks on the homes of other company executives and spray-painted their homes and cars with words like "puppy killer" and "murderer."

The Foundation for Biomedical Research on its Web site has a 44-page spreadsheet detailing incidents of vandalism and other crimes across the country allegedly committed over the past several decades by ALF and other groups, including Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty.

"The Internet has been a huge boon for their kinds of activities," Trull said. "You can get people to promote their messages above ground, and it's easier to coordinate tactics via e-mail."

The targets don't even need to be directly involved in animal testing or research, said Tim Horner, managing director of the international security firm Kroll Inc.

"Their tactics don't just target a CEO or chairman of the board," he said. "They go after assistants, engineers, lab technicians ... it could be anybody."