news
Take action against Cal's vivisection expansion.
More vivisection coming to UC-Berkeley: Li Ka-Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences. Contractor and subcontractor information now added.
Construction of the the Li Ka-Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences at University Avenue and Oxford Way in Berkeley has begun (project construction started in April 2008) and is scheduled for completion by March 2010.
This facility will include a basement-level vivisection lab that would expand UC Berkeley's existing Northwest Animal Facility by seventy percent.
The Zimmer Gunsul Frasca firm of Portland (http://www.zgf.com/) was chosen as the Executive Architect.
The McCarthy Building Company , Northern Pacific Division, based in San Francisco (http://www.mccarthy.com) is the general contractor.
Project Management for the construction: UC Berkeley Capital Projects (www.cp.berkeley.edu)
Please call, fax, and email these individuals and let them know what you think of their decision to
assist in the torture of thousands of sentient beings.
Teri Mathers, Project Manager UC Berkeley Facilities Services/Capital Projects
1936 University Avenue, Room 232
Berkeley CA 94720
Office Phone: 510-643-1428
Fax: 510.643.3309
tmathers@cp.berkeley.edu
Robert G. Bluhm, Assistant Director UC Berkeley Facilities Services/Capital Projects
1936 University Avenue, Room 222
Berkeley, CA 94720
Office Phone: 510-643-7166
Fax: 510-642-7271
rbluhm@cp.berkeley.edu
Rich Henry, President, McCarthy Building Company, Northern Pacific Division
Office Phone: 415-397-5151. ext. 1308
Email: rhenry@mccarthy.com
Frances M. Choun, Vice President Business Development, McCarthy Building Company, Northern Pacific Division
Office Phone: 415-397-5151 Ext. 1314
E-mail: fchoun@mccarthy.com
Call him at home and let him know how you feel, or visit him with a legal home demonstration in response to his complicity:
Robert G. Bluhm, Assistant Director UC Berkeley Capital Projects
Home:
2828 Kelsey ST.
Berkeley, CA 94705
510-848-7641
Subcontractors:
Drilltech Drilling & Shoring
Drilltech Drilling & Shoring (http://www.drilltechdrilling.com) is a specialty drilling subcontractor with offices in Northern and Southern California.
Northern California Office:
2200 Wymore Way
Antioch, CA 94509
Phone: 925-978-2060
Fax: 925-978-2063
Southern California Office:
22223 Forest Boundary Road
Corona, CA 92883
Phone: 951-277-9700
Fax: 951-277-9701
R & B Equipment Inc.
R & B Equipment is another company providing their services and assistance to construct the new lab where thousands of animals will suffer and die.
R & B Equipment, Inc.
2215 Dunn Rd.
Hayward, CA 94545
(510) 782-3774
Jatagan Security Inc.
Providing security services, including 24 hour wireless video surveillance of the site.
Jatagan Security Inc.
1418 N. Market Boulevard
Suite 100
Sacramento, CA 95834
Telephone: (916) 285-0396
Fax: (916) 977-0278
Email: sales@jatagan.com
Disclaimer: Please keep all communications with these individuals and businesses legal and polite.
6/11/08 - San Francisco Chronicle smear piece on East Bay animal rights action
Press smearing of animal rights activists heats up.
A sensationalist and trash piece that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on June 11. Full of flat-out lies and deceptions. Foremost among the deceptions being the portrayal of vivisector Frederic Theunissen's experiments on birds. These birds are immobilized and bolted down in stereotaxic devices, have holes drilled into their skulls, and electrodes inserted into their brains for recording. In most of the studies, the birds are killed for brain study.
Another huge deception is that Ralph Freeman's torture of kittens and cats is shedding light on Epilepsy. We haven't even read Freeman try to make this claim.
Protests at UC animal-lab workers' homes
Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Officials have been trying to keep it quiet, but 24 UC Berkeley researchers and seven staffers have been harassed by animal rights activists in recent months, in some cases having their homes or cars vandalized.
"What they all have in common is that they all work in animal research," UC Berkeley spokesman Robert Sanders said of the targeted employees.
In several instances, the activists have shown up outside researchers' homes in the middle of the night with bullhorns and chanting, "Animal killers." Sometimes they have scrawled slogans on the sidewalk in chalk.
On more than one occasion, rocks have been thrown through the researchers' windows and their cars have been scratched up.
"Sometimes (the activists) go up to the door," Sanders said, "which can be very frightening to the family."
According to UC, there have been 20 reports of damage to researchers' homes in Berkeley, Oakland and El Cerrito since August, including seven broken house windows and three vandalized cars.
Thirteen researchers have been harassed on more than one occasion, authorities said. One researcher, who studies how cat brains work for epilepsy research, has reported seven incidents at his home.
No specific group has been identified as being behind the harassment. The actions appear to be coordinated through an animal rights Web site that includes photos of researchers, descriptions and photos of their experiments, plus their home addresses and phone numbers - along with the disclaimer, "Please keep communications with the individuals legal and nonthreatening."
However, it doesn't appear that activists are always following those instructions.
The latest incident occurred the weekend of June 1 in Berkeley, when a group of activists showed up during the daytime outside the home of a researcher who studies the effects of pesticides on mice. A rock was thrown through the researcher's window and a window at a neighbor's home, Sanders said.
Even a researcher who studies bird singing has been harassed and had his house vandalized.
"To study bird songs, you need to get them into the lab," Sanders said. "You want to record them and see how they raise their young."
It's not exactly the animal torture chamber one usually associates with the most negative depictions of animal research. But "apparently, these activists don't believe in any kind of animal research," Sanders said.
"As you can imagine," he added, "some of these faculty members are pretty freaked out."
By the time the cops show up, the protesters are usually gone. As a result, there have been no arrests - only an occasional citation issued for disturbing the peace.
Officials have been trying to keep the protests quiet, in part out of concern that publicity will only cause more incidents and an escalation in violence. At UCLA, animal rights protests have included attempted firebombings and one instance in which a researcher's home was flooded with a garden hose.
Looking at the numbers, it's pretty clear that keeping things quiet in the press hasn't toned down the protesters much. It's just as clear, however, that the protesters aren't reaching their goals, either.
"All of our researchers are adamant that their research is critical and that they are not going to quit," Sanders said
5/11/08 - UC intimaidation - lawsuit threatened in effort to further hide what goes on behind close doors in the vivisection labs
Message received from Dreamhost:
From: "DreamHost Abuse/Security Team"
Date: Wed, May 7, 2008 4:51 pm
Priority: Normal
Hello,
We have received a couple complaints from UC Berkeley regarding your site, here:
http://pixelexdesign.com/stopcalvivisection/newlab.html
Here is the original complaint:
-----------
Re: Take down request -- Inappropriate personal information posted by DreamHost Web Hosting customer website "pixelexdesign.com"
Abuse, DreamHost:
The following letter has been sent via US mail. We are now forwarding it electronically.
The "pixelexdesign.com" site, a customer of DreamHost Web Hosting, is enabling the publication of endangering personal information on pages
entitled "Meet the Vivisectors at UC Berkeley!" and "New Vivisection Lab at UC Berkeley."
The web pages are posted at:
http://www.pixelexdesign.com/stopcalvivisection/vivisectors.html and
http://www.pixelexdesign.com/stopcalvivisection/newlab.html.
The material includes personal home addresses and home phone numbers for individual researchers and for another University employee, work
locations with specific room numbers in buildings on campus and work phone numbers for the researchers and a number of other University employees,
and also company contact information for project contractors. The posting of such personal and work location information in this context clearly
endangers these members of our academic community and associated individuals.
Therefore, we request that your company immediately take whatever level of action is necessary to remove the material in question, up to and including disabling the entire site if required.
This request is also made in light of Government Code section 6254.21 which protects public officials, such as University employees, and their families from the possibility of intimidation and harassment in their private homes, by prohibiting the kind of publication of home addresses undertaken on the "pixelexdesign.com" website.
Your cooperation in this important matter will support efforts to enforce legal and appropriate use of the Internet. Absent immediate confirmation that you agree to take down this inappropriate personal information, my Office will be referring this matter to our legal counsel for their action.
Sincerely,
Shelton M. Waggener
Associate Vice Chancellor for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer
University of California, Berkeley
----------
Upon asking them for more information on the legal justification for their request to remove the content, they also sent us:
----------
As you are no doubt aware, statements may be unlawfully threatening even if they do not contain an explicit threat. Rather,
"Whether a particular statement may properly be considered to be a threat is governed by an objective standard -- whether a reasonable person would foresee that the statement would be
interpreted by those to whom the maker communicates the statement as a serious expression of intent to harm or assault."
Planned Parenthood v. American Coalition of Life Activists (9th Cir. 2002) 290 F.3d 1058, 1074.
"Alleged threats should be
considered in light of their entire factual context, including the surrounding events and reaction of the listeners." Id. at 1075.
Thus, where posting information about individuals has had the effect of inciting violence or harm, subsequent posting can be an unlawful, unprotected threat. Id. at 1079.
Those are exactly the
circumstances here.
University of California faculty and staff whose names and home addresses have been posted have been subject to
attacks, vandalism, home invasions, and even targeted for bombings. For example, the Stop Vivisection web page advertises a
planned night-time "vigil" at the residence of one faculty member whose home has been subject to multiple attacks by groups
of masked vandals shouting threats, pounding on his door, and breaking windows. It is well known that web postings of the
sort on the ?Stop Vivisection? web site result in such unlawful conduct. They therefore constitute unlawful threats.
----------
We would appreciate if you could respond to us as soon as possible to let us know what your position on these legal arguments are.
Thanks for your understanding and prompt cooperation in this matter.
Karl
--
- DreamHost Abuse/Security Team
SATURDAY MAY 10 AT 10PM - VIGIL AT THE HOME OF JACK GALLANT.
On Saturday, May 10, 2008 at 10PM, we will hold a vigil at the home of UC Berkeley primate torturer Jack Gallant.
Jack Gallant is the only current known primate vivisector at UC Berkeley.
The non-human primates languish at UC Berkeley because of him.
Gallant subjects these animals to misery with the use of restraint chairs, bolting their heads still, fluid deprivation, and electrodes inserted deep into their brains.
Primates in captivity self-mutilate. They tear out their own hair. They exhibit the same symptoms of depression that prisoners of war suffer.
His home is located at 1057 Siler PL. in Berkeley.
www.mapquest.com/directions if you need directions. It's in the hills - so it could be a task to bike up there. We'll be carpooling, so just email us if you need a ride at stopcalvivisection@hushmail.com
CAMPAIGN TARGETS: UC BERKELEY ANIMAL EXPLOITERS
Yang Dan's research: Cats bolted down in stereotaxic devices (pictured) and electrodes inserted into their brains.
Home:
Yang Dan
140 Panoramic Way
Berkeley, CA 94704
Office:
Professor Yang Dan
230D Barker Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
Office Phone: 510-643-2833
Lab Phone: 510-643-3935
Email: ydan@berkeley.edu
UC Berkeley's Yang Dan has been using and abusing cats and rodents for years in useless "scientific curiousity" visual experiments, like her natural scenes experiment, where she recorded the world through a cat's eyes: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/471786.stm
Supposedly performed under sufficient anesthesia, Yang Dan's cats and other animals are paralyzed with a drug, a hole is drilled in their skulls and electrodes inserted directly into their brains. They are placed in "stereotaxic device with ear bars, eye bars and a mouth bar to stabilize the head position." Their eyes are "glued" to "posts." They are subjected to visual stimuli, and the electrical firings of roughly a dozen single brain cells or less are recorded continuously for up to "72 hours" non-stop until the "cortex stops giving normal visual responses." Rats are placed in a "light-tight box, and kept under no-light conditions for 48 hours to 1 week prior to recording," or one eye would be sewed shut. Rats will also undergo fluid deprivation to "motivate" them to perform tasks to test Dr. Dan's "visual discrimination paradigm."
The purpose, she claims, is to "understand how visual neurons code and process information" and how "connectivity between them are modulated by visual inputs."
From a 2003 paper of Yang Dan's:
A total of 18 anesthetized adult cats were used. ...Single unit recordings were made in area 17 [of the brain] using tungsten electrodes. Eye movement was minimized by mechanical stabilization. Visual stimuli were generated with a personal computer and presented with a monitor.
Jack Gallant's research: Fluid deprivation and restraint chairs (pictured) on non-human primates. Electrodes inserted into their brains for vision experiments
Home:
Jack Gallant
1057 Siler PL.
Berkeley, CA 94705
Office:
Professor Jack Gallant
3115 Tolman Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
Lab Phone: 510-642-2606
Fax: 510-642-5293
Email: gallant@socrates.berkeley.edu
From Indybay: "Professor Jack Gallant performs invasive single-cell brain recording in vision experiments on Macaque monkeys. Fluid deprivation is used to make them perform eye movements or visual fixations while they are in restraint chairs with their heads bolted still as single-cell activity is recorded invasively with wires sticking into their brains."
From a 2005 Animal Care and Use Committee Document detailing Gallant's primate research and extreme cruelty.
"Currently, two projects approved by the ACUC involve regulating water in experimental studies. The projects require regulating the water of the animals during training and recording procedures. The animals are on a schedule that regulates their access to water to daily laboratory sessions of up to 6 hours per day during training and neurophysiological recording. Juice or water rewards are used during these times as a positive reinforcement in shaping the animal to perform the required tasks using operant conditioning techniques... ...During this reporting period, nine animals underwent fluid regulation."
"Prolonged physical restraint of alert animals is prohibited unless essential to research objectives. All such restraint must be justified to and approved by the ACUC... ...The ACUC approved three projects that require physical restraint of unanesthetized animals. The second and third projects involve research that tracks the eye movements of a non-human primate to specific visual stimulation. The animal sits in a specially designed chair, which allows him to freely move his limbs and adjust his posture while in a head restraint. In-chair training is initiated several months before the actual study begins, to allow the animal to adjust to an increasing duration of restraint... ...The animals are chaired between 2-6 hours per day, 5-7 days a week for studies which may last up to 3 months... ...During this reporting period, nine animals underwent physical restraint."
From a 2004 paper of Gallant's:
We recorded spiking activity from 74 well isolated neurons in parafoveal area V1 of two awake, behaving male macaque monkeys. Extra-cellular activity was recorded using tungsten electrodes. A custom hardware window discriminator was used to identify action potentials. During recording, the animals performed visual fixations for a liquid reward. Eye position was monitored with a scleral search coil.
Stephen Glickman's invasive reproductive experiments on female hyenas
Home:
Stephen Glickman
1488 Summit RD.
Berkeley, CA 94708
Home Phone: (510) 540-0598
Office:
Professor Stephen Glickman
3131 Tolman Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
Office Phone: 510-642-5797
Fax: 510-642-5293
Email: glickman@socrates.berkeley.edu
Professor Stephen Glickman describing what he's learned while putting hyenas through a life of hell in an enclosure in the hills north of the UC Berkeley campus: "The external genitalia are highly "masculinized," i.e., the clitoris has hypertrophied to form a pseudopenis, traversed by a central urogenital canal. There is no external vagina. The female spotted hyena urinates, copulates and gives birth through her clitoris."
From a November 2005 Animal Care and Use Committee document detailing Stephen Glickman's so-called research on female hyenas:
"The project studies sexual differentiation in the spotted hyena. A captive-breeding colony of hyenas is maintained for this research and currently consists of 34 animals. One aspect of the project involves terminating pregnancies at various times to study the sexual differentiation process and its hormonal correlates. Since there are a limited number of breeding females, the investigator has received permission from the ACUC to carry out multiple Cesarean sections (C-sections) on individual females to acheive the minimum sample sizes for statistical validity. The minimum interval between surgeries is 6 months... During this reporting period, 3 hyenas (that previously had a C-section) underwent an additional Cesarean section."
Ralph Freeman's invasive experiments on cats: kittens bolted down in stereotaxic devices (pictured) and electrodes inserted into their brains
Home:
Ralph Freeman
2340 Vine ST.
Berkeley, CA 94708
Office:
Professor Ralph Freeman
589 Minor Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
Office Phone: 510-642-6341
Lab Phone: 510-642-6440
Lab Fax: (510) 642-3323
Email: freeman@neurovision.berkeley.edu
From a 2005 paper of Freeman's: "Data were obtained from ten young cats (age 2.5 - 6 months) bred in a closed laboratory setting. ...Briefly, anesthesia was induced with an intramuscular injection of ketamine...and xylazine. ...During recording, the animal was paralyzed with continuous intravenous infusion of gallarmine triethiodide in glucose saline. The pupils were dilated with atropine hydrochloride... ...Animals were refracted, and gas-permeable contact lenses with 3.5mm artificial pupils were fitted to
correct focus for a viewing distance of 50cm. A trepanation (hole drilled into the skull) was made above area 17 of one or both cortical hemispheres and the dura (the tough and inflexible outermost of the three layers of the meninges surrounding the brain and spinal cord) was removed. Animals viewed, via front-silvered mirrors, a 21 inch monitor positioned at a distance of 50cm on which stimuli were presented independently in the two eyes. ...In the majority of experiments, neuronal activity was recorded with glass-insulated tungsten micro-electrodes."
From another 2005 paper of Freeman's: A total of 14 cats were used in this study.
Animals were anesthetized with thiopental sodium (Pentothal) through a venous catheter at a continuous
infusion rate determined individually for each animal. ...After a tracheostomy, each animal was placed
into a sterotaxic frame and artificially ventilated... ...A craniotomy was performed over each hemisphere...for recordings in visual cortex. ...After craniotomy, the dura (tough and inflexible outermost of the three layers of the meninges surrounding the brain and spinal cord) was reflected to expose the cortex.
During recording, eye movements were blocked with a continuous intravenous infusion of pancuronium bromide.
Hydration was maintained by a continuous infusion of lactated Ringer's solution. ...Rigid contact lenses with 4mm artificial pupils covered the eyes during recording. After the micro-electrode sensor was positioned over the target brain location, the craniotomy was sealed with agar and a wax coating. Each animal was positioned in front of a system of mirrors that directs the field of view of each eye to separate halves of a cathode ray tube display.
Frederic Theunissen's invasive and useless experiments on birds at UC Berkeley: "Torture for a sexy song"
Home:
Frederic Theunissen
2141 Browning ST.
Berkeley, CA 94702
Home Phone: (510) 647-5267
Office:
Professor Frederic Theunissen
3425 Tolman Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
Office Phone: 510-643-1531
Fax: 510-642-5293
Email: theunissen@berkeley.edu
From Indybay: Frederic Theunissen performs invasive brain recordings on finches. He also uses a wild-caught crow and a wild-caught raven.
The purpose, he claims, is to "achieve a better understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying the perception of complex sounds" and "learning mechanisms during development."
He states "there may exist an overall sexual preference for a male with a 'sexy song.'" How demented.
From a 2006 paper of Theunissen's: Twenty-one adult male zebra finches were used.
All birds were bred and raised at the University of California, Berkeley. We recorded the electro-physiological responses of single units in the auditory midbrain region.
Two days before recording, a bird was anesthetized... The bird was then placed in a custom stereotaxic with ear bars and a beak holder. Lidocaine was applied to the
skin overlying the skull, and a midline incision was made.
A metal pin was fixed to the skull with dental cement... On the day of recording, the bird was anesthetized with three injections and placed in the stereotaxic. At this dose, achieves a level
of anethesia without complete loss of consciousness.
The bird's head was immobilized by attaching the metal pin cemented to the bird's skull to a customized holder mounted on the stereotaxic.
Lidocaine was applied to the skin overlying the skull region covering the optic lobe.
After application, a small incision was made in the skin over
the skull covering the optic tectum. A small opening was made in the skull, and the dura was resected from the surface of the brain. ...Neural recordings were conducted in a sound-attenuated chamber.
...After recording, the bird was anesthetized with Nembutal and transcardially perfused with 0.9% saline followed by 3.7% formalin in 0.025m phosphate
buffer. The skullcap was removed and the brain was postfixed in formalin for at least 5d.
From Indybay: John Casida fed nerve poisons (contained in pesticides and chemical warfare agents) to mice to find
the level at which half of them will die in two hours, the notorious LD50 test - a very cruel and unnecessary practice
as in-vitro toxicology tests are available and more accurate and relevant.
Frank Werblin's experiments on confined rabbits.
Home:
Frank Werblin
491 Boynton Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94707
Home Phone: (510) 528-6301
Office:
145 Life Sciences Addition
Berkeley, CA 94720
Office Phone: 510- 642-7236
Lab Phone: 510-642-3281
Fax: 801-640-3205
Email: werblin@berkeley.edu
From a 2005 paper of Werblin's: New Zealand white rabbits were anesthetized with injections of xylazine/ketamine and subsequently killed with an intracardial injection of pentobarbital sodium.
Immediately after death, the eyes were removed [and studied].
Jeffery Winer: hideous brain and ear recordings on cats.
Jeffery Winer currently performs highly invasive and gruesome brain and ear recordings on cats. He has performed similar experiments on primates, owls, bats, and rodents.
Home:
Jeffery Winer
608 Robinson Way
Benicia, CA 94510
(707) 746-7289
Office:
289 Life Sciences Addition
Berkeley, CA 94720
Office Phone: (510) 642-8227
Lab Phone: (510) 642-9637
Email: jaw@berkeley.edu
Lucia Jacobs: Painful and useless behavioral studies on mice, various squirrel species, kangaroo rats, voles, and other animals.
Home:
Lucia Jacobs
438 Beloit Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94707
Home Phone: (510) 527-4302
Office:
Professor Lucia Jacobs
3117 Tolman Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
Office Phone: (510) 642-5739
Email: jacobs@berkeley.edu
Fax: (510) 642-5293
Mu-Ming Poo: Cocaine addiction and decapitation of rodents
Mu-Ming Poo addicts rodents to cocaine. He also decapitates baby rats.
Home:
Mu-Ming Poo
1753 Tacoma Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94707
Office:
Professor Mu-Ming Poo
229 Life Sciences Addition
Berkeley, CA 94720
Office Phone: (510) 642-2514
Lab Phone: (510) 643-4576
Email: mpoo@berkeley.edu
Fax: 510-642-2544
From a 2007 paper of Poo's: "Young Sprague Dawley rats were anesthetized with Sodium Pentobarbital and decapitated. T he brain was rapidly dissected and transferred [to be studied.]"