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Animal-rights group ALF frees birds from testing lab
In predawn raid, activists rip wires, release quail, ducks
By Sarah Huntley
and Joe Garner
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writers
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WELLINGTON — Cloaked by darkness, animal-rights radicals struck an animal-testing lab this week, freeing more than 100 animals.
A shadowy international group known as the Animal Liberation Front claimed credit Tuesday for the early Monday raid, saying members had hoped to uncage hundreds of birds and rodents they say are undergoing cruel experimentation.
The predawn sabotage initially sparked police warnings that vicious, poison resistant rats shipped in from Chicago and New York for testing had been let loose into the rural community, seven miles north of Fort Collins.
But the lab's president, Richard Poche, said later that only birds were freed; no rodents were missing.
Larimer County sheriff's deputies and the FBI's domestic terrorism unit are investigating.
The activists ripped wire from two outside bird coops at Genesis Laboratories near Wellington, broke a lock on a rat cage and drilled through the corrugated metal wall of a research building before tripping a motion sensor alarm and fleeing.
The Animal Liberation Front, or ALF, said in a news release that 179 birds were freed.
The underground organization, with a history of bold attacks, vowed to bring an end to all animal experimentation, saying there "is simply no moral or ethical justification for torturing wild animals."
The ALF communique did not mention releasing rats.
The rat cage was outside the research building, but was enclosed by a 3-foot-high concrete wall.
"They opened the door and, as far as we could tell, none (of the rats) escaped," Poche said. "We think, when they opened the door, they freaked."
Poche declined to give reporters full access to the property, saying it was still a crime scene.
He said the cage contained about 50 rats that were part of a rodent control study designed to curb the spread of mice-borne diseases. Some of the rats, which Poche said weighed about 10 ounces, were collected in Chicago, but "were no different from rats found in Denver," he said.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Gordon said late Tuesday that her agency is puzzled by the contradictory information, but "must defer to the company" until the investigation is completed.
Ann Watson, spokeswoman for the Larimer County Health Department, said health officials are not planning to take any action because Poche told them no rats had escaped.
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ALF actions
The Animal Liberation Front has claimed responsibility for these incidents:
Jan. 5 — Took 23 rabbits from R&R Rabbitry Research Development in Washington state. The animals were being shipped to Western Washington University for research.
Aug. 27, 1999 — Stole a macaque from the BTJ Jungle Pet Store in Long Island, N.Y. The monkey had greeted visitors from a small cage in front of the store for 25 years.
July 3, 1998 — With the Earth Liberation Front, released 310 animals from the United Vaccines Experimental Fur Farm in Middleton, Wis.
June 21, 1998 — Burned down two U.S. Department of Agriculture buildings near Olympia, Wash., in conjunction with the ELF.
Nov. 29, 1997 — Released 500 wild horses and set fire to wood pens, loading ramps and an office at Bureau of Land Management corrals near Burns. None of the horses was hurt and most were recaptured.
—Compiled by News library staff
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The 3:51 a.m. raid revived a longstanding debate about the effectiveness of ALF tactics.
David Barbarash, an ALF spokesman, said the activists notified him that they freed 168 bobwhites and 11 ducks, all of which were native to eastern Colorado and Wyoming.
But Poche, a wildlife biologist, said the birds actually were quail and mallards, most of which had been bred in captivity.
"The ducks come with their wings clipped, so they can't fly. They probably have been eaten by now," Poche said.
Natural predators, including coyotes, foxes and feral cats, abound in the Wellington area.
Poche said he and investigators found some dead quail near their coop. The quail had leg bands so he could identify them as his.
"Some died because of pain and stress, and because they were mishandled," he said.
About half of the quail had been recovered Tuesday afternoon after they returned to the coop for food and water.
Quail released from inside the building had just arrived to be used in an Environmental Protection Agency study to determine whether poisons used to kill rodents would harm birds, he said.
The birds kept in the outdoor coops were not being used for research. Poche said he sometimes gave them to neighbors and employees to cook and eat.
David Crawford, director of Rocky Mountain Animal Defense in Denver, said he had no first-hand knowledge about the raid but was confident the activists had reason to believe the birds were wild.
ALF was founded in 1976 in Great Britain and now claims branches in more than a dozen countries. It is a companion organization to Earth Liberation Front, which took credit for torching several buildings and ski lifts on top of Vail Mountain in October 1998.
Genesis Laboratories was founded 11 years ago and has been at its current location, on a frontage road along the east side of Interstate 25, since 1992. It employs 15 to 18 workers, depending on projects under way around the world, Poche said. About one-third of the workers hold doctorates, he said.
The company works for wildlife agencies, such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and for private companies, including manufacturers of pesticides.
Poche said he had not received any recent warnings from ALF but the attack has prompted him to hire armed security to protect his property.
"It doesn't pay to be logical to try to defend oneself against a group like that," he said. "They don't care how many people die from rodent diseases. They have no real compassion for mankind."
August 30, 2000
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