US (SD) Committee Kills Bill Offering Extra Protection to Researchers and Ranchers

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[AG Week]PIERRE, S.D. — A measure that sought to give university researchersand workers extra protection from terrorist acts by animal-rightsextremists was rejected Wednesday by a South Dakota House committee.The State Affairs Committee voted 11-2 to kill the bill after panelmembers said current law already makes it a crime to commit all theacts covered in the measure. Some said the measure also went too farin closing state government records and could have made it a crime fora newspaper to publish a story about a research project."Commonsense tells me existing criminal code must cover every aspectof this" said Rep. Charles Turbiville, R-Deadwood.Supporters said the bill is needed because extremists in other statesare stepping up the use of violence and intimidation in an effort toshut down research projects that use ani-mals. Such terrorism islikely to spread to South Dakota,

they said."People who had been content to firebomb the facilities are now goingafter the workers because it's more effective," said Jim Shekleton,the Board of Regents' lawyer.HB1078 was proposed by the Board of Regents to protect researchers andother university employees from extremists who oppose research usinganimals. Twenty agricultural organi-zations also sought to expand themeasure to cover private research firms as well as farmers andranchers.-- full story:http://www.agweek.com/articles/?id=2232 & article_id=13341 & property_id=41