NEW YORK An animal rights group has threatened to damage homes and property of Wachovia Corp. workers after saying it spray-painted the home and car of a bank employee in Portland, Oregon.
A spokesman for the city's police bureau confirmed some details of the spray-painting incident, which he said was reported on March 7, without confirming the specific address or identity of the intended target.
A letter posted on the North American Animal Liberation Press Office's Web site, attributed to the Animal Liberation Front, said the incident was in response to what the latter called Wachovia's investment in GlaxoSmithKline Plc. It said Glaxo is the largest customer of Huntingdon Life Sciences, a European contract animal testing company.
"This is a warning to Wachovia; sell your shares in GSK or the ALF will continue to target the homes and property of your employees," the letter said.
Wachovia spokeswoman Christy Phillips said: "Wachovia is working with federal and local authorities to investigate the matter." She declined to discuss details of the incident.
The Wachovia employee whom the group said it targeted, Jason Bratt, could not immediately be reached at work or at home. The animal rights group did not immediately return phone calls requesting comment. U.S. Attorney Karin Immergut declined to comment. Calls to U.S. representatives for Glaxo and Huntingdon were not immediately returned.
Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia, the fourth-largest U.S. bank, employed 108,238 people at year end.
Brian Schmautz, the Portland police spokesman, said the letters "ALF" were spray-painted between 9 p.m. on March 6 and 5 a.m. on March 7 on the passenger-side door of a Volvo parked on the 1400 block of SE Flavel Street, citing a police report. Bratt lives on that block, according to phone records.
The letter attributed to the ALF said the incident occurred a day earlier, and included painting on Bratt's garage door.
On its Web site, the group said it tries to stop animal abuse in part by "causing financial loss to animal exploiters, usually through the damage and destruction of property." It called its campaign "nonviolent."
The group was involved in a campaign against Life Sciences Research Inc. In February 2006, the animal testing lab was forced to start trading on the Pink Sheets rather than on the New York Stock Exchange after a campaign by animal rights activists led to the resignation of its primary market maker.
Last November, four defendants acting on behalf of the ALF and another group pleaded guilty in Portland to arson and conspiracy charges in what federal prosecutors called "the largest case of eco-terrorism in United States history."
Wachovia as of December 31 held 10.12 million American depositary receipts in Glaxo, worth about $511 million at the time, according to Thomson ShareWatch.
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