A coyote named Hal dies after being tranquilized and removed from New York City’s Central Park. A 300-pound black bear is gunned down in Newark, NJ after animal control morons drive the frightened bear deeper into the city instead of moving it toward the woods. On May 12, 2006, a CBS-TV News segment is entitled: “Brazen Wild Animals Moving In On Our Turf: Urban Sprawl Making For Some Unforgettable Scenes”. Wild animals are not the only ones being displaced by urban sprawl.

Bordering the north perimeter of Central Park, a new territorial dispute is quietly beginning to unfold. Columbia University has announced that it will be displacing long term tenants, including low income housing residents and shopkeepers, from homes and businesses. Initial reports indicated that they needed the space to expand student facilities. The truth is that Columbia, propelled by greed and the lure of government grants, is planning to build a Bio-Tech Laboratory as part of an 18 acre/$5 billion development, in the middle of densely populated Harlem.

Harlem is a community that is rich in culture and history and houses a wide range of residential communities, diverse businesses, churches, restaurants and clubs including the landmark Apollo Theater. The U.S. Census conducted in 2000 reported approximately 300,000 residents of the neighborhoods that together represent the community of Harlem.

On April 27, 2006, Win Animal Rights joined community groups at Columbia University to protest the building of this government funded Bio Lab. The lab would be a Biosafety Level 3 Lab (BSL 3), which according to the Center for Disease Control would allow them to work with “…indigenous or exotic agents which may cause serious or potentially lethal disease as a result of exposure by inhalation route.” This would include diseases like Hanta Virus, Ebola, West Nile Virus and many other deadly organisms.

Activists that gathered at Columbia University included a coalition of Harlem residents led by the Harlem Tenants Council and joined by human rights and peace activists, environmentalists, animal rights activists and many concerned students. Over 200 chanting protesters carried colorful posters and banners reading “No Biotech in Harlem” and “Save Harlem Children”. Armed with leaflets and flyers detailing the negative community impact of building the lab, activists canvassed area businesses to alert them to the health and safety risks associated with the proposed lab. Most were unaware of Columbia’s plans and many expressed grave concern when told about the kind of research that would be undertaken at the Level 3 Lab.

The community protest ended with a march through the Columbia University campus and a rally on the Library steps. Coalition members spoke to the large gathering about the past history and driving motivation of Columbia University, which appears to be financial, and their continued lack of concern and compassion for the health and safety of the community.

This is not the first time that Harlem residents have been victimized by unscrupulous corporate robber barons. The BBC documentary, “Guinea Pig Kids”, exposed multi-national pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) as having colluded with Incarnation Charities and Columbia University Medical Center to use HIV-positive orphans from Harlem to test experimental drugs. According to the report, guardians were threatened with having their children taken away if they were voluntarily withdrawn from the drug programs. Many of these economically and socially disadvantaged children suffered grave and devastating side effects from the experiments.

GSK is one of the major customers and cheerleaders of the notorious animal testing laboratory, Huntingdon Life Sciences, the object of a global animal rights campaign targeting it because of unethical and immoral business practices revealed in five undercover investigations.  Hundreds of companies have refused to work with animal abusers Huntingdon Life Sciences, while GlaxoSmithKline continues to support and stand behind them.

In addition to ethical and moral considerations, we must consider the dangers and safety issues surrounding the placement of a Level 3 Lab in a densely populated urban setting. Attempts to locate discussions of safety issues are frustrating at best. Page after page of references point one toward statements extolling the virtues of Bio-Tech labs and soothing government platitudes meant to relieve any anxiety one might have of so many virulent and toxic substances moving into the “hood”. In September 2005, without media attention, 3 lab rats infected with bubonic plague, as part of government sponsored bio-terrorism research disappeared from a New Jersey laboratory. It was a full 2 weeks after the disappearance that the news was reported to the general public. The lab rats were never found.

New Yorkers have long lived under the specter of animal research gone awry. In 2004, Michael Christopher Carroll authored the book, LAB 257 The Disturbing Story of the Government’s Secret Plum Island Germ Laboratory. LAB 257 takes you on an unsettling journey through the labyrinth of a secret world of viral outbreaks, infected workers and release of contaminated sewage into public waterways. The Plum Island lab, located just off the north coast of Long Island, has been called the epicenter of Lyme Disease and West Nile Virus. The book is a real eye opener for anyone who may be living in the shadow of a Level 3 lab. One Plum Island worker noted: “Plum Island is a biological Three Mile Island”.

Add to this mix, increasingly violent storms and bizarre weather patterns triggered by global warming and you have a real recipe for disaster. We all know about the devastation and destruction that occurred in New Orleans last year as a result of Hurricane Katrina. What we are unlikely to ever find out is what happened to the two Level 3 biolabs in New Orleans and the three in nearby Covington. The Tulane National Primate Research Center alone housed 5,000 monkeys, most in outdoor cages. One wonders what happened to the animals? Did they escape? Were they drowned or killed by the storm? What happened to the biological agents that were being worked on in these labs? We may never know.

Sadly, this problem is not unique to New York City. Following 9-11, vast amounts of Homeland Security resources have been designated for the building of new Level 3 and 4 Labs across the USA. The question is: will these labs make us safer or are we being put in greater danger by the very agency that is supposed to protect us, Homeland Security?

Efforts to stop the building of the Lab by Columbia University have been legal and peaceful thus far. One must wonder if Columbia will experience the kind of resistance taking place in England at Oxford University. At Oxford, massive marches and rallies against the building of an animal testing laboratory have been supplemented by costly acts of eco-sabotage and intimidation tactics, which have forced construction workers to wear masks and travel in unmarked vehicles. ALF actions have caused millions of dollars in damage in defense of the animals and the earth…a situation worthy of consideration.