Animal Activists Get More Militant

Groups Also Targeting More People Indirectly Involved In Research

(AP) 
Seven people are scheduled to go on trial next month in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, for operating another Web site that encouraged the terrorizing of Huntingdon Life Sciences and businesses associated with it.

Prosecutors say the defendants encouraged vandalism in July 2002 at a golf club on Long Island. One of the players in a charity tournament scheduled there was an executive of a company that insured Huntingdon.

"There is no question that the fringes of the animal welfare and environmental rights movements have become increasingly radicalized," said Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project. "These sectors see themselves in a war against the entire government and industrial democracy itself."

Although ALF says it dissociates itself from actions that harm people, Potok said it's "fairly miraculous" no one has been injured, noting that some ALF members have allegedly set fire to homes and factories.

Trull was not optimistic the situation will change soon.

"My fear is that in this climate they have managed to drive away really brilliant minds from this endeavor," she said. "Is the next lab they target the one that is about to find a cure for Alzheimer's or cancer?"