(08-04) 04:00 PDT Santa Cruz --
The devices used in two firebombings targeting UC Santa
Cruz biologists are similar to some used in the past by
animal rights activists, investigators said Sunday.
The bombs were so powerful they were
like "Molotov cocktails on steroids," said Santa Cruz
police Capt. Steve Clark.
One struck the home of assistant biology
Professor David Feldheim on Saturday morning, forcing him
to flee with his family. The other exploded just a few
minutes earlier, gutting a car parked outside the campus
home of a second researcher.
Later, Santa Cruz County sheriff's deputies
went to the home of a third researcher who received a threatening
telephone message, but officers found no explosives.
More than 50 investigators, including
some from the FBI's regional terrorism task force, are
looking into the attacks.
Feldheim, whose townhouse was firebombed
just after 5:30 a.m., uses mice in laboratory research
on brain formation.
He told The Chronicle that he and his
wife, along with their 7-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter,
had to drop a ladder from the window of a second-floor
bedroom to escape after smoke filled the home's first floor.
"Everyone is OK," Feldheim said in an
e-mail. "The kids are taking it pretty well. My wife and
I are very shaken up. I also injured both feet in the escape."
Act of terrorism
Feldheim was treated at a hospital and
released, police said. Clark said the attack on Feldheim
is being considered an act of terrorism and attempted murder.
Clark said the bomb at Feldheim's house
was similar to those used by animal rights extremists in
the past, adding, "There are instructions on how to make
it on their Web sites."
Feldheim and the unidentified faculty
member who received the threatening message were named
on pamphlets that were left on a stack of newspapers in
a downtown Santa Cruz coffee shop last Tuesday, Clark said.
The unsigned pamphlets at Caffe Pergolesi, which printed
13 researchers' pictures and addresses, called them murderers
and torturers and said, "Animal abusers everywhere beware."
The name of the researcher whose car
was bombed was not on the pamphlets, Clark said.
The attacks may mark an escalation in
a series of protests against UC researchers that prompted
a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to issue a temporary
restraining order against three animal rights groups in
February.
In January, a Molotov cocktail exploded
on a UCLA researcher's porch. A month later, six people
in masks tried to force their way into the home of a UC
Santa Cruz researcher and hit her husband on the head,
police said.
And at UC Berkeley, officials said 24
animal researchers and seven staffers have been harassed
in recent months, with some homes and cars vandalized.
Clark said authorities are offering
security to UC Santa Cruz animal researchers and have contacted
every person named on the pamphlet, whether or not they
were involved in animal testing. He said investigators
were combing the Internet to see if anyone would take credit
for the attacks. But as of Sunday, no one had.
"It's one thing to be an activist, it's
another to be an extremist," Clark said. "It's absolutely
outrageous that you would bring this kind of an attack
to a family, all because of your passion over this cause.
To me, it's indicative of people who have a complete inability
to articulate their point in a constructive manner."
UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George Blumenthal
condemned the bombings as "criminal acts of anti-science
violence."
A different view was expressed today
by Jerry Vlasak, a Los Angeles spokesman for the North
American Animal Liberation Press Office, which often posts
on its Web site communiques from activists taking credit
for attacks. He said the benefit of animal research does
not justify its expense or the exploitation of animals.
Vlasak said the bombers likely were
not trying to hurt Feldheim, but were instead "trying to
send a message to this guy, who won't listen to reason,
that if he doesn't stop hurting animals, more drastic measures
will be taken ... it's certainly not an initial tactic,
but a tactic of last resort."
Feldheim, whose work includes introducing
genes into living mouse brains, said Sunday that his research "is
aimed at understanding how brain connections form during
development, with special focus on the visual system." He
said the work is important "so we can learn how to fix
these connections after damage due to injury or disease."
Sunday afternoon, Feldheim's front door
and concrete patio in a complex of townhouses on Village
Circle remained blackened by flames and smoke. A neighbor
said that residents, who are mostly faculty and students,
awoke to the sound of an alarm.
"I feel bad that anyone would take that
drastic a step to harm people," said Miriam Ting, a Santa
Cruz pharmacist.
No answer
Just a few blocks away, no one answered
the door at the brown faculty townhouse where the car had
been firebombed, and a biology professor listed as living
there did not respond to an e-mail. His driveway was still
charred; the car was no longer there.
"It's a threat to everyone who lives
here," said David Anthony, a history professor whose home
is attached to the one where the car was firebombed.
Feldheim described a frightening escape.
When the bomb exploded near his front door, he said, his
family was awakened by the sound of smoke detectors.
"The downstairs was so smoky that we
could not see," said Feldheim. "My wife and children all
escaped out of the bedroom window using a fire-escape ladder.
A neighbor and then the Fire Department came and put out
the fire."
Feldheim said his home had been vandalized
last year, with "hateful messages" written in chalk on
the sidewalk outside, trash strewn about and some flower
planters broken. The university responded by paying for
an alarm system and motion-sensitive lights, he said.
"I'm not sure what we'll do in the future," Feldheim
said.
E-mail the writers at wbuchanan@sfchronicle.com and dbulwa@sfchronicle.com.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/08/04/MNMI124HSI.DTL