Terror in Santa Cruz

By Thomas Lifson

Animal "rights" activists appear to have firebombed the home of a molecular biologist in Santa Cruz. California. The terrorists are trying to force a halt to scientific research that involves death and discomfort for animals.

Mary Anne Ostrom of the San Jose Mercury-News reports:

a well-known molecular biologist and his family, including two small children, were forced to escape a smoke-filled house using a second-story ladder after a firebomb was intentionally set, Santa Cruz police said. One family member sustained injuries requiring brief hospitalization, and police are calling the firebombing, which occurred shortly before 6 a.m., a case of attempted homicide.

About the same time, a car belonging to a researcher parked at an on-campus home was also firebombed, destroying the vehicle.

The violence occurred four days after a customer at Caffe Pergolesi, a downtown Santa Cruz coffeehouse, found fliers listing the names, home addresses, home phone numbers and photos of 13 UC-Santa Cruz science researchers and professors. Police believe unidentified animal rights activists created the fliers, which were made to appear as "wanted posters." They warned "Animal abusers everywhere beware; we know where you live; we know where you work; we will never back down until you end your abuse."

These thugs are trying to intimidate with deadly force those with whom they disagree. They are as much terrorists as al Qaeda, and deserve to be hunted down and punished just as ruthlessly.

The researcher at the University of California Santa Cruz will no doubt bear the scars of this potentially deadly assault for the rest of his life, as will his family.

I await the loud condemnation of animal protection groups like PETA, and from the left wing community in Santa Cruz. But I am not holding my breath.

A new dark age beckons.

Hat tip: James Lewis