AIDS PATIENTS TO PROTEST ANIMAL GROUP.

Byline: Associated Press

Jeff Getty, who received a baboon bone marrow transplant in December, said he and other AIDS patients plan a counter-protest in Maryland against animal rights activists.

The 38-year-old activist said Monday that the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, based in Maryland, and other groups have hounded him since the transplant.

``They call me a `victim of mad science,' '' said Getty, a former University of California policy analyst who became an activist in the mid-1980s when he discovered he was HIV-positive. ``I received some rather obnoxious messages when I was in the hospital fighting for my life.''

Getty, who left San Francisco on Monday for Washington, said he and more than 25 other people with AIDS will target the Maryland-based group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals with a protest in Landover, Md., on Thursday.

``It's hard to get people with AIDS who are sick to go fight in the streets,'' said Getty, who lives in Oakland. ``But we have to get the message out that (animal rights groups) are slowing and obstructing AIDS research.

``This is the first time the AIDS community has stood up to these people.''

Meanwhile, PETA has begun its weeklong March for Animals in Washington and expects to draw thousands of activists from throughout the country. The group is opposing animal abuse on farms and the use of animals in cosmetic and medical labs and in circuses, among other things.