The National Association of Pension Funds, whose members control funds worth £650 billion, is working to prevent a repetition of the campaign of violence and
intimidation waged against Huntingdon Life Sciences, according to a newspaper report.
A spokesman for the NAPF said that the group was in touch with business figures to assess whether civil lawsuits against violent activists could help.
"What we don't want to see is trustees or managers of pension funds being attacked," the spokesman said.
"We are looking at civil action to see how it could be used to make sure that trustees and fund managers can invest in legitimate business."
He stressed that the NAPF was in no way opposed to legitimate protest.
Intimidation from animal rights extremists was not thought to be a problem for pension funds at the moment, he said.
The aim is to examine new ways of preventing such a group "trying to stop legitimate investment" in addition to the existing options for criminal
prosecutions.
Animal rights extremists were blamed after a construction company pulled out of building a controversial new drugs research laboratory at Oxford University.
Montpellier plc withdrew from the laboratory, currently under construction, this week after shareholders received threatening letters, leading to a
temporary drop in the company's share prices.
But Oxford University, a partner in the £18 million project, vowed to continue undeterred with the biomedical facility using mice, amphibians and monkeys in a search for cures for diseases and conditions like leukaemia, Alzheimer's, asthma and others.
Research scientists reacted angrily to what they said was blatant "terrorism" and the government promised to quickly clamp down on "internal terrorists" and give better protection to such companies.
In June, Montepellier's non-executive director, John Biles, resigned after just one month, citing "personal reasons".
Company bosses have also had paint poured over their cars in apparent targeted attacks.
Animal rights activists are due to hold a demonstration at the construction site today and have accused police of "acting disgracefully" after they issued an order limiting the size and duration of the protest.
Thames Valley Police has restricted the demonstration to a hour, with a maximum of 300 protesters.
Police said they were not limiting the size of the march, just the planned protest at the end.
Six months ago, Cambridge University abandoned plans for a multi-million pound primate research centre.
The project was dropped because it faced escalating costs which were partly because of the expected need to protect it from animal rights activists.
Pharmaceutical testing firm Huntingdon Life Sciences, based in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, has also been the scene of many bitter confrontations.
The firm has been a target for animal rights activists for many years.
There have been mass protests against the company, and activists have broken into the building, attacked cars and subjected staff and shareholders to intimidation and threats.
Figures published two months ago showed protesters had stepped up their campaign of violence and intimidation against scientists and their property.
The statistics from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry showed there were 46 instances of damage to personal, company and public property between January and March this year - more than double the number in the first quarter of 2003.
There were also 32 visits to the homes of company directors compared with 10 in the same period last year.
A total of 22 companies had severed their links with animal research providers in the first three months of the year.
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