In the quiet life of Fran Stephanie Trutt, there seemed to be only one abiding passion: protecting dogs from abuse. The 33-year-old substitute teacher from Queens, N.Y., devoted much of her free time to her canine crusade. She fed neighborhood strays, marched in antivivisection protests and pushed for legislation outlawing cruelty to animals. Her mother told reporters last week, "She was obsessed with animals, particularly dogs, that's the truth."
Two weeks ago, Trutt's passion came dangerously close to exploding. Acting on a tip from an informant, police in Norwalk, Conn., arrested Trutt seconds after she placed a powerful pipe bomb studded with roofing nails outside the headquarters of the U.S. Surgical Corp., a firm that animal-rights activists have accused of cruelty to the dogs it uses for medical research and training. On the seat of Trutt's rented Chevy pickup was a remote-controlled detonator from which a battery had been removed to prevent an accidental explosion. A subsequent search of her apartment turned up three more bombs and a shotgun. Trutt was charged with possession of explosives, manufacturing a bomb and attempted murder. Police believe the intended victim may have been U.S. Surgical's president, Leon Hirsch.
Since 1981, U.S. Surgical has been the target of heckling demonstrators, some carrying signs reading STAPLE HIRSCH and KILL HIRSCH. Animal-rights activists have also launched at least two unsuccessful legal efforts to revoke the company's license to use live animals. According to Hirsch, U.S. Surgical uses hundreds of dogs a year to train doctors and the company's own salesmen with the high-speed surgical staplers it manufactures. The trainees practice by stapling multiple surgical incisions on anesthetized dogs, after which the animals are destroyed. Hirsch insists there is no substitute for live animals in the training program. "A dead dog doesn't bleed," he says. "You need to have real blood-flow conditions, or you get a false sense of security. A stapler improperly used is a very dangerous device." But Susan Seymour of Friends of Animals charges that using the dogs in the training program is unnecessary. She notes that many surgeons learn stapling and other techniques without practicing on live animals before they treat humans.
Trutt's arrest raised the possibility that the animal-rights movement, which in the past has confined itself to public appeals, lobbying for anticruelty legislation and an occasional raid on research facilities to free the animals inside, has entered a terroristic phase. But activists were quick to disavow the use of violent tactics. Says Julie Lewin of the Fund for Animals: "Violence toward people does not help animals." Some animal-rights proponents contend that Trutt's aborted bomb attack is so damaging to their cause that it may have been instigated by an agent provocateur. Police say they believe the bomb she planted was too sophisticated for her to have made by herself. As the FBI joined the investigation last week, Trutt professed to have no knowledge of explosives.