The Animal Liberation Front (ALF), one of the most active animal rights extremist movements in the U.S., issued a statement on July 12, 2006, taking credit for leaving an incendiary device at the home of a UCLA primate researcher.

In its communiqué, ALF said it placed a "molotov cocktail" on the doorstep of a Lynn Fairbanks, the director of the Center for Primate Neuroethology at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, on June 30, 2006, because of her involvement in animal experimentation.

The incendiary device, however, was not left at Fairbanks' home, but rather at home owned by a 70-year-old woman, according to the FBI.  Arson investigators said the device failed to ignite, but had it functioned properly, it would have made escape difficult or impossible. 

Federal authorities have announced a $30,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. 

Fairbanks has been the focus of a campaign by the Primate Freedom Project at UCLA, whose mission is to "end the use of primates in biomedical and harmful behavioral experimentation," according to it Web site. 

There is no indication that the Primate Freedom Project at UCLA is connected to the incident, however, in a press release issued by the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, a Primate Freedom Project spokesperson says the professor "is riding a gravy train to personal gain, nothing else, and I hope the ALF stops her in her tracks."  A photo of the professor and her address are posted on the Primate Freedom Project at UCLA Web site, as is a flyer for "distribution in her neighborhood."