Animal activists have targeted research labs in Moscow in a recent wave of assaults that have caught Russian authorities off-guard.
On 21 April masked invaders burst into the Anokhin Institute of Normal Physiology, smashed a frog pool, and set loose 119 frogs in marshes near the city. On 8 May activists stole 110 rats and five rabbits from the department of higher nervous activity at Moscow State University. This month they invaded the university's physiology department and "were pouring white mice from their cages into a garbage bag" when surprised by security personnel, says deputy department head Andrey Kamensky.
On 11 June they returned to the department of higher nervous activity. Researcher Anna Smirnova explains that the targets, crows and ravens, were mostly wounded wild birds brought in for treatment. "They leave their cages reluctantly, so the 'liberators' had to throw four of the most seriously wounded birds out the window," she says.
In an e-mail to Science, the Animal Liberation Front took credit for the raids and warned that "this is just a beginning of our action in Russia." The country is ill- prepared to deal with the attacks: Parliament passed an animal anticruelty law in the late 1990s, but it got bogged down in the amendment process and was never signed by President Vladimir Putin. And police say current laws are vague on animal theft.
CREDIT: ALF | 
