Daniel J. Flynn

Violent animal rights groups have struck American campuses once again. Scientists at scores of university labs received life-threatening letters in late October containing razor blades from a group calling itself, “Justice Department.” 

    “The razor blades were inside the top flap so that if you were to run your finger through the envelope the way most people do, you would have been cut,” explained Dr. Peter Gerone, a researcher at a lab in Louisiana who received a booby-trapped letter. 

    The animal rights group, believed to be based in Britain, claims to have sent 80 researchers similar letters. The letters were all sent in white, business-size envelopes with a Las Vegas postmark. Those receiving the letters include scientists at Harvard University, the University of Washington, Emory University, and the University of Wisconsin. 

    One Harvard University scientist received a letter that read: “You have been targeted and you have until autumn of 2000 to release all your primate captives and get out of the vivisection industry. If you do not heed our warning, your violence will be turned back on you.”

    Because monkeys have similar anatomies to humans, such research is deemed necessary to combat diseases that afflict humans, such as cancer.

    Justice Department’s website proclaims, “Animals had suffered long enough—the time has come for abusers to have but a taste of the fear and anguish their victims suffer on a daily basis.” 

    Among the accomplishments the group brags about on its website are sending letter-bombs to North American animal exportation companies and mailing envelopes containing razor blades laced with rat poison and HIV+ blood to Canadian hunter guides and fur sellers, respectively.