British scientists using animals in experiments are threatening to take their work overseas because of intimidation by animal rights activists.
Professor Colin Blakemore, head of physiology at Oxford University, is one of many experts in Britain who have been forced to consider their future following hate campaigns by groups opposed to their use of animals to increase their medical knowledge.
Last week, Blakemore, whose work has convinced doctors of the importance of making an early diagnosis of children's sight problems, admitted he had been driven to desperation by the latest campaign against him, which has included threats to kill him and his family.
He said: "I have decided to stay in Oxford for the time being but I could have doubts about that if the harassment goes on."
That harassment has included an anonymous telephone call to Blakemore's wife when she was pregnant, with the caller saying: "I hope your baby is born deformed." This month, the professor says he picked up the telephone to be greeted with the message: "This is a member of the Animal Liberation Front. We are going to kill you."
Another academic whose work has been jeopardised by animal liberationists is Professor Ian Steele-Russell, a psychology professor at London University, who has been experimenting with animals for 20 years.
He has received several death threat letters in the past few weeks objecting to his experiments on monkeys as part of his research on cures for brain damage.
Steele-Russell, who moved from University College London last April to help set up a neurobiology unit at the Royal Holloway and Bedford New College in Surrey, says he is determined to survive the hostility.
But Professor Bill Challoner, his head of department, warned that while Steele-Russell might withstand the pressures, there were other scientists at the university who had been worried by the campaign against their colleague.
He said: "We are very conscious of this highly unpleasant situation and of the hazards the researchers are increasingly facing. Professor Steele-Russell's work is being put back by a year because we have had to make the animal house more secure to ensure these activists can't break in."
Last month, activists attempted to break into Blakemore's laboratories in Oxford but failed because of tight security. Since then, he has not allowed his three children to leave home unaccompanied.
Blakemore lays much of the blame for his ordeal on an article published last May in the Sunday Mirror, which gave prominence to animal rights views that his work was "barbaric". Much of the intimidation followed its publication.
The paper reported that he was carrying out eye experiments on live baby monkeys and that his research techniques included the stitching up of the monkeys' eyelids, removing the eyeballs and keeping animals in total darkness. It then quoted critics as claiming that his work added nothing to the treatment or understanding of children's squints.
Blakemore complained to the Press Council that the article was distorted, and received a letter of support from Douglas Hurd, the home secretary, who described the campaign against him as "outrageous".
The intimidation against Steele-Russell started about the same time when he moved to the Royal Holloway and Bedford New College.
There had never been any protests about his work at University College but when he moved to the new college in Egham, Surrey, last April he was confronted by students demanding an explanation of his research.
He refused to give one and is now at loggerheads with the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection who took up the students' cause, claiming his experiments were unnecessarily cruel and painful.
Steele-Russell, a former director of the Medical Research Council, defends his methods, claiming his monkeys experience no pain. He admits he sometimes has to induce a small stroke but the monkey is always anaesthetised and makes a full recovery a few hours later.
Last night, the Animal Liberation Front refuted Blakemore's claims that some of his letters had been sent by ALF members. However, Animal Aid, another group, admitted it had been at the forefront of the campaign against the professor, but denied sending hate mail and making anonymous telephone calls.
