The achievements and victories of these few bands of caring warriors must never be forgotten and must never be understated. And though we may have failed the animals in labs for a dark era of inaction, let us look back at their story and now pick up where they left off. – No Compromise
On May 28 the Animal Liberation Front picked the lock to Thomas Gennarelli’s head injury research lab at the University of Pennsylvania, smashing every piece of equipment in the lab and confiscating over 60 hours of Gennarelli’s own research footage on his head smashing experiments with live primates. Gennarelli, who had for years hidden behind a laboratory door and thumbed his nose at animal advocates, had just met the animal rights movement’s new answer to vivisection secrecy: the A.L.F.
The footage revealed the most horrific glimpse inside a vivisection lab ever seen before or since 60 hours of inadequately anesthetized primates plastered into restraining devices receiving blows to the head at up to 1000 times the force of gravity. The video brought the evil of animal research to the attention of the nation and its “reallocation” became the A.L.F.’s most publicized action ever.
The A.L.F. of the 1980s found its greatest voice in PETA, who acted as a mouthpiece for the A.L.F. following the raids, holding press conferences and distributing videos and seized documents to the media. The PETA press conference following the Gennarelli raid set off a media-wildfire surrounding the confiscated footage and sparked a fierce standoff between the compassionate public and the animal researchers. The biomedical research PR machine swung into motion, reassuring an outraged public of the “necessity” of head injury research. They said the choice was simple: the baboons or their children.
The A.L.F. responded two months later by breaking into the University of Pennsylvania Vet School and liberating one dog.
When the smoke cleared it was a victory for the A.L.F. and the animals: NIH funding was revoked and Gennarelli’s lab was shut down.
From one lab to the next throughout the ’80s, the Animal Liberation Front saw the suffering, the torture, the legal means ignored, and implemented their timely and direct reaction to the slaughter – break down the doors, smash the labs, get the animals out. The U of P break-ins displayed what best characterized the A.L.F. raids of the ’80s – a sense of urgency. And the A.L.F.never rested long.
I invite you to join the NIO blog network and take a stand for those imprisoned in labs. Remember, if they could fight back, their tormentors would have expired long ago. We have an obligation to expose the abusers. It is the LEAST we can do! I welcome your emails & look forward to adding your name to our team.
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I remember this well, I tried to enlighten people about this and for the most part, was not believed. I believe many people stay in denial because they cant handle the thought of it, without being able to be empowered to stop it.The government’s structure of intimidating people into submission is still in the dark ages. Yet a serious example of the vivisectionist’s barbaric monstrous experiments.