No one has claimed responsibility for the vandalism, but an Animal Liberation Front primer distributed on the Internet promotes window smashings as a basic way of getting a store's attention about animal abuse. Some groups such as the ALF have been classified by the FBI as "domestic terrorist organizations."

Beckham is with Utah Primate Freedom, which has sparked a legal debate as the Salt Lake County Council sought to ban their demonstrations outside the homes of University of Utah scientists who participate in animal research. A conditional ban has been approved.

In his e-mail to the Deseret Morning News, he said the oppression of animals is "no less serious or atrocious than the oppression of humans."

"Their suffering is indistinguishable from our own and heaps of suffering are being thrown on them for the most trivial of human desires and profit," he wrote. "Once you see it that way, it's almost not impossible to view the ALF as a sort of modern-day Underground Railroad."

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com