The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into an incident two weeks ago in which a primitive incendiary device was left outside a home in Los Angeles and, shortly afterward, a Web site used by the Animal Liberation Front “took credit” for the attempted attack against a scientist who uses primates in her research at the University of California at Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles Times, the device was left outside the wrong house and failed to ignite.

Still, an FBI spokeswoman described the incident as “an act of domestic terrorism,” and a $10,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to a conviction in the crime.

The Animal Liberation Front has taken credit for hundreds of incidents of vandalism that have damaged research and facilities at a number of colleges and universities, among other targets. At a Senate hearing last year, the group was described as one of the most serious domestic-terrorism threats today (The Chronicle, May 19, 2005). Many of the incidents, including this latest one, have been publicized through the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, co-founded by a university professor who is one of the leading scholarly voices on animal rights (The Chronicle, August 5, 2005).