Activists hit with restraining order

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge granted a temporary restraining order against three groups and five individuals accused of targeting UCLA faculty involved in animal research.

The ruling comes a day after the lawsuit was filed. Judge Gerald Rosenberg will preside over a hearing on a preliminary injunction on March 12. For now, the defendants cannot harass faculty or come within 50 feet of them in protests.

The UC Board of Regents served as the plaintiff of record on behalf of UCLA.

The lawsuit accuses the defendants, the UCLA Primate Freedom Project, the Animal Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Brigade, as well as individuals believed to be associated with these groups, of invading the privacy of researchers, causing emotional distress and interfering with business practices.

Many faculty involved with animal research have been victims of attacks dating back to June 2006. In the most recent incident, an incendiary device was found at the home of Edythe London, a professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences and molecular and medical pharmacology at the David Geffen School of Medicine.

The North American Animal Liberation Press Office, an organization that acts as a press outlet for several animal rights activists groups, called the lawsuit “an obvious act of desperation” in a press release.

Animal rights activists have also targeted researchers at the Berkeley, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz campuses.

A similar lawsuit was filed by UCLA in 1989 against activists who protested outside of the homes of faculty members.