FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE/News Conference Advisory
Friday, October 6, 2006
Contact: Michael Budkie, SAEN, 513-703-9865 (cell)
LOS ANGELES, Ca. - Animal rights activists - including the director
of a national nonprofit organization in Cincinnati who investigates the
treatment of animals in U.S. research laboratories - will confront the
UCLA chancellor about animal abuse on the campus this next Monday.
The activists will meet at 10:15 a.m. Monday at the corner of
Westwood & Leconte for the news conference. And, then attempt to meet
with Administration officials at the UCLA Chancellor's Office (Murphy
Hall, corner of Hilgard and Strathmore).
In September, after actions taken by underground animal rights groups
targeted University of California researchers - including one at UCLA
who says he quit doing animal research because of the attacks -a
coalition of local and national organizations said UCLA was misleading
the public about abuse on campus.
Internal UCLA documents on primate health care records and
experimental procedures, including those of former UCLA researcher Dario
Ringach, who quit doing animal research recently because he was targeted
by the Animal Liberation Front, said UCLA labs were abusing animals and
wasting precious research dollars.
Michael A. Budkie, A.H.T., Executive Director of SAEN, said analysis
by scientists found Ringach's research, which brought millions of
dollars to UCLA, was "a waste of precious and limited health care and
research resources."
-30-