Animal rights group creates hit list of universities conducting research on monkeys

Letters sent to six universities requesting details of experiments involving primates have sparked panic among researchers.

The revelation raises the spectre of extremists widening their focus beyond Oxford University where militants are waging a terror campaign to derail a planned £20million animal research facility.

The group which made the requests under the Freedom of Information Act insists it is non-violent and has not yet decided what it would do with the replies.

But academics fear the list will be published on the web and seized on by extremist groups.

They are concerned activists are attempting to discover the names of the 10 universities engaged in forms of primate research.

Until now, universities have attempted to keep their primate testing facilities secret amid fears of attack.

The Home Office has a list of institutions doing this work but it is strictly classified and not shared even with the Department of Trade and Industry, which is responsible for science.

Details of the letter were revealed yesterday in the Times Higher Education Supplement.

It asks for details of how many and what species of research primates are being used at the university.

It goes on: "We are contacting a number of universities in the UK to collate an accurate and up-to-date picture of primate experimentation at UK universities.

"Published work by researchers at your institution suggests that primates are being used there.

"We think it is in the public interest that more information is given about the nature of such use, so that a more complete picture can be obtained about overall primate use in the UK than is currently available."

The Research Defence Society, which campaigns on behalf of animal research, said information on primate testing was not currently publicly available.

Simon Festing, executive director, said: "The fear is that this will be a hit list. If they identify the roughly ten institutions which do primate research and put it online, all it needs is some nutcase locally to follow a researcher home and carry out an attack.

"At the moment, animal rights extremists in the UK are sending hoax letter bombs. Actual injuries have been minimal but it is the fear that is the issue. These universities are scared for their researchers."

Oxford's laboratory complex has been the subject of a prolonged campaign by animal rights fanatics. At one stage the project had to be shelved for 16 months.

Construction is now carried out behind high hoardings while builders are escorted to and from the site and wear balaclavas to hide their faces.

Extremists have described Oxford academics as "legitimate targets" and published their addresses on the Internet.

A key figure in animal research at one of the universities targeted with letters told the THES said academics were "worried".

"The spectre of what is going on at Oxford is something no one wants to see repeated at their institution."

The six universities targeted with letters have been advised to neither confirm nor deny whether they undertake primate research.

The group which issued the letters is the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection.

Sean Gifford, campaigns manager, said: "In general, these experiments go on behind closed and locked doors. We have a long campaign to ban primate research completely. Primates are our next of kin. It doesn't take a huge leap of imagination to see that they suffer enormously in British labs.

"We absolutely condemn any act of violence and intimidation towards technicians or researchers."