Researcher's Receive Booby-trapped Mail - Brief Article

Animals, Jan, 2000

Animal-welfare organizations are decrying the mailing this fall of more than 80 letters, booby-trapped with razor blades, to scientists who use primates in research.

The letters, which began arriving at universities and research centers around the country in October, were postmarked from Las Vegas. They are believed to have been sent by a group that calls itself Justice Department.

"We condemn such actions. Violence has no place in promoting animal welfare," comments veterinarian Peter Theran, a vice president of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals/American Humane Education Society and head off its Center for Laboratory Animal Welfare.

Researchers were told in the letters to cease their activities with primates within a year or face potentially violent consequences.

Justice Department, said to have its roots in England, has been known to cause disturbances there and in Canada.

The FBI is investigating. All of the mailings were forwarded to the agency's Las Vegas office, which in turn shipped them out for DNA and fingerprint analysis, says Special Agent Kevin Caudle.