SANTA CRUZ -- Threatening pamphlets publishing the personal information of UC Santa Cruz biomedical researchers were found at a downtown coffee shop late Tuesday night, police disclosed Wednesday.

Police spokesman Zach Friend said a customer at Caffe Pergolesi, 418 Cedar St., gave police the stack of about a dozen pamphlets, saying the papers had been left by an unknown person. The fliers, which police are investigating as threats of a possible attack following a string of incidents this winter, target scientists who use mice, fruit flies and other animals in their work.

According to a copy provided by police, the fliers say, "Animal abusers everywhere beware; we know where you live; we know where you work; we will never back down until you end your abuse." The names, home addresses, home phone numbers and photos of researchers also were published on the fliers, but police have not verified whether those personal details are correct.

Anyone found to be responsible for the pamphlets could be charged with intent to terrorize or additional charges if the pamphlets could be linked to future violence or incidents targeting researchers, Friend said.

"The clear intent of these pamphlets was to terrorize and intimidate through complete cowardice," Friend said. "They are targeting families that have young children and other relatives completely uninvolved in animal testing."

As a precaution, UCSC spokesman Jim Burns said the university is notifying UCSC employees whose names appear on the fliers. No researchers have reported any recent harassment, the university and police confirmed.

Friend declined to identify the customer who notified authorities about the fliers, but said the person removed all of them and turned them over to police out of a concern that they might incite violence. Friend said it was unclear exactly when the pamphlets were left at the coffee shop, which is popular with UCSC students, but that employees had not previously reported seeing them.

The pamphlet discovery is the first incident reported since a series of vandalism cases this winter targeting UCSC researchers and UC Berkeley scientists. In February, masked demonstrators rattled the front door of a UCSC researcher, whose husband chased the intruders away while the researcher protected her children in the back of the Westside home.

Hours after the attempted home invasion, authorities raided a Riverside Avenue house where several students live. No arrests have been made, and police say the hard drive of a laptop confiscated at the house had been cleaned several times, increasing suspicion among investigators.

In response to the winter incidents, Assemblyman Gene Mullin, D-San Mateo, wrote a bill called the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, which would have made such fliers and other harassment of animal researchers a specific crime. Although the bill passed out of the Judiciary Committee last month, it has been moved to the Senate's inactive file, the reasons for which were not immediately clear Wednesday.

UCSC had supported the measure as needed protection for researchers.

"As we have said many times, the faculty, students and staff engaged in health-related research on this campus shed light on the causes of breast cancer, neurological diseases and on the toxic effects of lead and other metals," Burns said, in reaction to the fliers. "The work they do is vitally important."

In the weeks immediately after the attempted home invasion incident, the university hired private security guards to protect researchers, but Burns declined to say Wednesday whether the service was still being provided.

"Any security steps we take to help safeguard our people are, for obvious reasons, not something we will be discussing publicly," he said.

Police asked anyone with information about the fliers to contact investigators at 420-5820 or an anonymous tip line at 420-5995.