In the wake of similar ordinances in Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County, the Holladay City Council has reacted to recent protests by the Utah Primate Freedom Project in front of the homes of University of Utah live-animal researchers.

City and university officials say the ordinance protects researchers' right to privacy. But critics say the ordinance restricts First Amendment rights and will only push the protesters onto neighboring property.

"While we respect the right of people to protest and make their views known, our employees have the right not to be subjected to that speech when they're in their home," said Tom Parks, U. vice president for research. The protesters intend, he said, "to intimidate animal researchers to stop [using animals]."

Four U. researchers use animals, and at least one, Audie Leventhal, lives in Holladay.

"I am funded by the National Institute of Aging to try to figure out why our brains don't work as well when they get old," said Leventhal, who works with rhesus monkeys that he says live out their natural lives. Those lives, he said, are much longer than the 17-year life span they would have in the wild.

The protesters, who usually demonstrate in groups of 10 to 20, say they have every right to do what they do.

The local ordinances are "obviously targeted to try to keep secret what people do up at the University of Utah," said Colleen Hatfield, regional director of SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK), a group working with the Primate Freedom Project.

Hatfield, who acknowledges that members of those groups often wear masks to keep their identities secret, often parks the "Tiger Truck" in front of researchers' homes. The truck has four large screens on its sides that scroll through images of primate research.

She said the demonstrators not only target researchers, but also raise awareness of neighbors about what the scientists do for a living.

Capt. Chris Bertram, Holladay's chief of police services, said the ordinance will protect targeted residents.

"We've had problems not only in Holladay, but there have been problems in the surrounding areas, in Millcreek and Salt Lake County," Bertram said.

"Anybody that wants to protest - they have the right to do that as long as they don't violate the law," Bertram said.

Even if they move 100 feet away, he said, protesters still must obey other ordinances: They are not allowed to trespass on other people's property and have to be in a public area, on a sidewalk or on a street.

The new ordinances worry Salt Lake City-based civil-rights attorney Brian Barnard.

"If demonstrators violate the current law, we should enforce those. But what Holladay and the county and [Salt Lake City] have done is restrict First Amendment laws," Barnard said. "It's a knee-jerk reaction."