The Gum Tree for 2004 August 10

Today I learned something interesting. Three months or so ago there was an 18 year old kid associated with the "Strait Edgers" which is a subgroup of the ALF (animal liberation front who vandalized BYU's agri/horticulture buildings. He went into the animal holding area and stole all of the rabbits and various other animals. At the same time he vandalized the buildings by spray painting his various vulgarities and such on the walls. Well, He took the rabbits and other furry friends home to be "protected" from the evils of science research and commercial animal cruelty. What he didn't know was that the animals had tracking/labeling chips implanted on them for the research that was going on before he took them to his house. Well the FBI searched for the animals using these chips and it just so happened that they found this neighbors dog who had the chip in his stomach, and with a little more investigation they found out that it was from a rabbit that escaped from this kids house next door.(so much for trying to protect the rabbits). The rest of the story that he was just sentinced to 5 years. Today I just happened to be working on a Rat Brain Prep where we took the brains from rats to isolate Acetylcholine vessicles from them. It took all day, and now I am off to swim with the scouts. It will be a nice day to swim.