Pro-Test Rally

UCLA students gather for 'Pro-Test' to support animal research
By Kylie Reynolds
April 9, 2010 at 1:40 a.m.


Amid a sea of “Research Saves Lives” signs and “Pro-Science, Pro-Gress, Pro-Test” shirts, approximately 200 protestors from UCLA and the greater Los Angeles area marched along Westwood Boulevard on Thursday to show support for animal research.


Organized by UCLA Pro-Test for Science, the second annual rally marched to Wilson Plaza, where students, scientists and the public gathered to listen to speakers and chant the occasional “No more threats, no more fear, animal research wanted here.”


Pro-Test, an organization started in Britain in 2006, publicly supports animal research and condemns the use of violence against researchers by animal-rights activists.


UCLA Pro-Test showed support for animal research on Thursday by marching up Westwood Boulevard toward Wilson Plaza. The rally concluded on campus with a series of speakers at Kaufman Hall.


After animal rights activists set UCLA psychology Professor David Jentsch’s car on fire in March 2009, he founded UCLA Pro-Test for Science and organized the group’s first march.


“It is important to me because ... all the people that are involved in research, who haven’t been necessarily affected by animal rights-related extremism ... may very well be in the future if we don’t make a difference now,” Jentsch said. Read More



We are fortunate to have very gifted people in our society that are working hard everyday to ensure the quality of our lives and our health continues to improve. This life saving medical research is under attack however. It’s under attack by those who place more emphasis on the life of a rodent than that of their neighbor. So much so that our researchers have to spend valuable time worrying about their own safety and that of their families rather than the important work ahead of them. It’s important that we continue to support our researchers and do what we can to protect them and their work.