Photos

January 19, 2007---Animal rights activists met at Le Conte and Westwood on a warm, breezy afternoon to conduct an on-campus demonstration at UCLA against its ghastly primate experimentation. UCLA receives $200 million a year in grant money to addict monkeys to crystal meth, paralyze them for 120 hours while bombarding their retinas with light, deprive them of food and water, implant metal coils in their eyes, and even use them to study bank robbery!

Independent grassroots activists from several groups - including UCLA Primate Freedom Project(uclaprimatefreedom.com) - were in attendance. Activists began the protest - displaying banners and signs, handing out leaflets, and engaging with passers-by on the subject of vivisection, generally and primate experimentation, specifically. Of course, there were the few detractors still convinced that the wanton and gratuitous torture of sentient beings from other species will provide benefits for their selfish human existences - but most were able to see without too much difficulty that spending $200 million to turn monkeys into "tweakers" was a criminal waste of their hard-earned taxpayer dollars.

About a half-hour later, protesters embarked on a march around the massive university campus - stopping at each research department to speak on the scientific fraudulence of vivisection and the perverted psycho's who make big bucks torturing animals and inhibiting true progress in human medicine. Their consciences don't seem to bother them as they deposit obscene grant awards that pay for luxurious homes and fancy cars at the expense of defenseless animals and a gullible public. Of course, activists were attended by a retinue of campus police who followed the march and blocked entry into each of the "targeted" buildings. No matter. Several bullhorns at maximum volume delivered the message that the atrocity of vivisection is being steadily exposed locally and globally - that the animal rights movement is a moral one and it is just a matter of time before the cinderblock walls hiding unimaginable abuse and torture done to animals come crashing down.

Among the protesters was a gentleman who flew down from Canada just to join the event. He came to burn his diploma earned on the University of California at Los Angeles campus, giving an eloquent speech about his mortification at being a graduate of an academic institution engaging in the archaic and heinous practice of vivisection. Students gathered on the quad to hear him speak and watch him destroy his diploma. The police informed him that it would be a felony to deliberately ignite a fire on campus, so he publicly ripped the diploma to shreds and scattered the "shards" to the wind. Activists pointed out to students that burning a diploma was a crime, but burning a living animal - a frequent procedure in vivisection - is perfectly legal in the UCLA labs.

Another speaker seized the opportunity to dissuade students from drinking POM Wonderful pomegranate juice, letting them know that the greedy company owners Stuart and Lynda Resnick - already worth $900 million - carry out disgusting experiments at UCLA in which they sever the penile arteries of rabbits to make bogus claims that their product will cure erectile dysfunction.

The demonstrators next marched to the Chancellor's offices and demanded a hearing. The Assistant Chancellor (in reality, probably just a secretary) made a symbolic gesture of offering to speak with five activists in a second-floor hallway. Under heavy police guard, the designated five offered individual commentary about the inefficacy of vivisection (cited even by the NIH as reliable only from 2%-25% of the time; flipping a coin would offer better odds), the maiming and killing of thousands of humans by marketing dangerous drugs proven "safe" in animal tests (and, conversely, withholding safe drugs proven "dangerous"), the utter waste of $200 million to addict primates to crystal meth when that money could fund clinical trials with humans and bring about legitimate medical advances for serious ailments, and - most importantly - the inexcusability of torturing other sentient beings.

It was further pointed out that even if the latter did bring about cures (but isn't it a grand moral statement by the universe that it doesn't?) smart and caring individuals would still be morally obligated to find alternatives. And scores of such do exist - some of which were named. Also mentioned was the fact that most of the chronic, degenerative diseases with which we are plagued during the last stages of our lives could be avoided with a vegan diet. The designated five who were allowed into the building, asked UCLA to become the "shining example" - the pioneer - in making the switch to human-based research. But one has to realize that vivisection is an industry and - as with any business - the objective is profits and the large sums of grant money given to UCLA by the NIH and others.

Well, the activists didn't come away with any illusions that the symbolic meeting would have UCLA renouncing vivisection any time soon. The UCLA protests, student outreach, media interviews, neighborhood demonstrations and the work of the underground, much more adequately serves to expose the animal torture and scientific fraud for which UCLA is becoming rapidly more notorious - and to embarrass an institution that falsely touts itself as being on the cutting edge of biomedical research. Among the protesters - and present at the "hearing" - was Bob Linden, host of "Go Vegan Radio" and boasting a wide Los Angeles listenership. KPFK (90.7 FM) aired an on-campus live interview with Bob later that evening.

Activists returned to Le Conte and Westwood where they packed up their signs and leaflets, bid their fellow protesters adieu, and departed into the warm California sunshine towards home. The primates and other animals sequestered in the soundproof UCLA dungeons facing daily torture from which a brutal death is their terrible end, will never feel the warm sun on their backs or the playful wind in their hair. One of the most arresting comments made at the "hearing" was that all of us standing in that hallway were fortunate to have been born human with no prospect of being vivisected. It could easily have been otherwise. We are - at the very least - therefore compelled to stand up and speak out in defense of those who are not of "human privilege."