Several professors at the University of California at Berkeley have been the targets recently of animal-rights demonstrations that resemble protests staged at the homes of researchers at the university’s Santa Cruz campus, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported today.

Some of the Berkeley professors said there had been protests at their homes every Sunday of this year, with activists yelling into bullhorns, chalking their sidewalks, and trespassing. The demonstrations are similar to those at Santa Cruz this month. One of those last Sunday turned violent, when protesters, possibly students, struck the husband of one biology professor at her house. Police officers in Berkeley and Santa Cruz are looking into whether there is any connection between the incidents.

Professors at the University of California at Los Angeles have also drawn the attention of animal-rights protesters this month. An incendiary device was left at the door of one professor’s house, the third such attack on a UCLA staff member in two years. Following that incident, the university sued and later obtained a temporary restraining order against several individuals and organizations. —Richard Monastersky