Aug 4, 2008 7:43 pm US/Pacific
Reward Offered In UC Santa Cruz Firebombings
SANTA CRUZ (CBS 5 / KCBS / AP / BCN) ―
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Firebombed car of UCSC faculty member.
Santa Cruz city officials announced a $30,000 reward Monday for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for two firebombings targeting University of California, Santa Cruz scientists.
The weekend incidents were the latest in a string of attacks against researchers who experiment on animals.
A spokesman for the animal rights activist group ALF, or Animal Liberation Front, claimed responsibility Monday for the attacks, which he said were the consequences of performing research on animals.
"We understand what they're doing and we predict there will be more of it as long as people continue to hurt animals,'' said Dr. Jerry Vlasak of the North American Animal Liberation Press Office.
The North American Animal Liberation Press Office provides media and the public with information about actions taken by groups and individuals in the "animal liberation movement,'' according to its Web site.
However, Santa Cruz Police Chief Howard Skerry declined to confirm whether investigators believed ALF was responsible.
"We do know people have spoken out about this," he told reporters at a news conference. "We don't know if it was committed by a group."
Police said Professor David Feldheim was treated at a hospital after a firebomb was lit on the porch of the molecular biologist's home. Feldheim and his family were forced to escape from a second-story window Saturday morning. Also that morning, a firebomb gutted a car belonging to another researcher.
Skerry said Monday that investigators had recovered an "enormous amount of forensic evidence" from the attack scenes and vowed, "we're not going to stop until we find those responsible."
Last week, authorities said they found animal rights pamphlets at a Santa Cruz coffeehouse warning scientists it accused of being "animal abusers" that, "We know where you live." The pamphlets included the address of Feldheim's home.
Feldheim said in an e-mail Monday that his home was vandalized last winter, prompting him to have security alarms and motion sensitive lights installed.
Protesters have targeted researchers at UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz in recent years.
"The attacks on member of the academic community that occurred this past weekend in Santa Cruz are outrageous and abhorrent," UC President Mark Yudof said Monday. "Acts of violence and intimidation such as these are unacceptable, and they continue a troubling pattern seen at UCLA and other UC campuses that should be repugnant to us all.
At UC Berkeley, campus police have put "heightened attention on the campus following the actions at UC Santa Cruz,'' UC Berkeley spokeswoman Marie Felde said.
She noted that a number of faculty members and researchers have been harassed through e-mails and telephone calls since last summer, and that the university was working with local, state and federal authorities.
Skerry said half of the $30,000 in reward money publicly offered Monday was donated by UC Santa Cruz, where the researchers work. The rest of the money was contributed by federal authorities, Santa Cruz residents and the U.S. Humane Society, which kicked in $2,500.
"The main thing I want to get across is that I and the community don't consider this protest, we consider this terrorism,'' added Santa Cruz Mayor Ryan Coonerty.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press and Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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