A series of protests Sunday outside a University of Utah researcher's home resulted in the first arrests under a new Salt Lake City ordinance requiring picketers to remain at least 100 feet from a residence.

Salt Lake City police booked into jail three animal-rights activists who were quickly released on their own recognizance.

The targeted scientist, whose research uses monkeys to study the way the brain receives stimuli from the eye, declined to be interviewed. U. administrators, however, denounced the demonstrations as intimidation.

A group called the Primate Freedom Project has singled out for pickets at least four U. scientists, providing photos and addresses on its Web site. The group did not organize Sunday's protests, which likely spun off from a conference the group held last weekend, spokesman Jeremy Beckham said.

"They want to shame researchers and embarrass them. Carrying signs is not intimidation. That's a protest," said Beckham, a U. student who founded the group's Utah chapter in 2003.

U. officials see the protests as a threat to researcher safety, particularly in light of confrontational behavior elsewhere in the country. Researchers in California have been assaulted in their homes.

"It's a priority for the university to protect our researchers and their families and the privacy of their homes," U. spokeswoman Coralie Alder said. "They [activists] are allowed to protest on campus. Posting personal information on the Web site . . . is not acceptable."

Numerous protocols are in place to ensure the legitimacy of the research and necessity of using animals, U. officials stress.

"Every new surgical technique, every new device implanted in a person, every new drug has to be tested in animals before it can be used in people. This is something the people of the United States acting through Congress require," said Tom Parks, interim vice president for research.

Sunday's protests began at 1 a.m. Police responded to the scientist's neighborhood where they encountered a small group of masked protesters staging a silent vigil, according to a police log entry. Officers warned protesters to stay at least 100 feet from a home, but made no arrests. Several callers summoned police again around 8 p.m. They arrived to find 16 activists chanting and waving signs. This time the officers issued citations to 12 of the picketers, arresting at least three young men. "One refused a ticket and requested to go to jail," Officer Bob Ellard said.

Beckham said the cited activists intend to fight the citations.

bmaffly@sltrib.com

* Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County councils last year both adopted ordinances banning pickets within 100 feet of a residence after animal rights activists staged protests in front of U. researchers' homes.

* In addition, the 2008 Legislature unanimously passed a measure to shield from public disclosure the identities and other personal information of university researchers who use animals in their research. SB113 arose in response to harassment and vandalism directed at U. faculty whose taxpayer-funded research includes experiments on primates.