What it's like to be hounded by activists who will stop at nothing to stop your research.

By P. Michael Conn, The-Scientist.com
Photographs by Bill Cramer

This is an edited excerpt from The Animal Research War by P. Michael Conn and James V. Parker, to be published by Palgrave Macmillan in May 2008.

For more information please visit www.palgrave-usa.com.

"Excuse me," I said, cutting to the front of the line of passengers at the airport departure gate counter. "I have an emergency and need you to call the police right now!" Two airline agents stopped checking seating charts and looked at me. "I am a medical researcher and some people are protesting my visit to Tampa. They're not passengers," I explained. (This was in 2001, shortly before 9/11, when security measures allowed nonpassengers into boarding areas.)

One desk agent examined my boarding pass, and then looked at my pursuers. I knew what she saw: five people with T-shirts that read: "KEEP PRIMATE TESTER Dr. P.M. CONN OUT OF U.S.F." She let me through. Ten minutes later, when the pilot boarded and asked if I was okay, and I heard the outer doors close, my blood pressure and heart rate slowly began to sink into normal ranges.

I was en route from Tampa where I had been selected as a final candidate for the position of vice president for research at the University of South Florida (USF). The people following me were animal rights activists, who had learned of my visit on an animal rights listserv.

I currently don't use animals in my research, but I am associated with people who do. I was special assistant to the president of Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), and associate director of one of its Institutes, the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC). I also have a research program that has contributed to the development of treatments for breast and prostate cancer, endometriosis, and problems of infertility. 1,2 I believe in the value of animal research in basic science. I have spoken and written about the importance of humane animal research and how it benefits both humans and animals.

Because of my position at the OHSU primate center, an animal rights activist had urged subscribers to an animal rights listserv to write letters to the University of South Florida administration and to my academic colleagues, protesting my candidacy. In Tampa, my plane was met by animal extremists who tried to engage and film me. Exercising their rights under a state open-meetings law, they were present at most of my scheduled meetings with university committees. Some stood outside meeting room doors to berate attendees and distribute fliers that made outlandish claims. At the end of the first day, I considered returning home to Portland for my safety, then decided to remain in this stressful situation for one more day. The university assigned an armed police officer to look after me. I received threatening calls at my hotel and knocks on the door in the middle of the night.

As the demonstrators hoped, drawing this much media attention suggested that I or my research program would be a liability. Needless to say, I didn't get the job.

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