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Cruel Science: Health CharitiesSome health charities ask for donations to help people with diseases and disabilities yet spend the money to bankroll shocking experiments on dogs, rabbits, rats, mice, primates, hamsters, pigs, ferrets, frogs, fish, guinea pigs, sheep, birds and other animals. While human health cries out for attention and so many people around the world go without medical care, animal experimentation only drains money from relevant and effective projects that aim to save lives. Healing Without HurtingInstead of pillaging animals' bodies hoping for cures for human diseases, enlightened charities focus their research where the best hope of treatment lies: with humans. They realise that animal experiments are unnecessary, unreliable and sometimes dangerously misleading. Enormous variations exist between rats, rabbits, dogs, pigs and human beings, and meaningful scientific conclusions cannot be drawn about one species by studying another. What is desperately needed is information about the mechanisms of disease in human beings themselves. Non-animal methods using the best modern techniques provide the relevant, accurate information that is essential to make real progress in the fight against disease. Enlightened, modern charities fund only non-animal research, helping human beings without starving, crippling, burning, poisoning or cutting open animals. Medical Research Without AnimalsThere are a number of charities which actively support research but don't use animals. They finance scientists who are developing non-animal research methods that will produce better and more relevant results. By supporting these charities, we can help humans and other animals. For a list of these charities, please contact PETA. Health Charities That Don't Test on AnimalsMany charities delivering help to ill people and conducting research to seek effective cures don't conduct any research on animals. If you would like a list of charities that don't test on animals or advice about charities in a certain field, please contact PETA. Remember that charities providing assistance to people in the developing world usually do not conduct animal testing and often help people suffering from medical problems for which treatments already exist. Please ensure that your gift does not lead to animal suffering in other ways, such as "send a cow" schemes, which can lead to poor animal welfare, environmental destruction and additional financial burdens for poor people. Health Charities That Do Test on AnimalsSome charities continue to test on animals. Even if they are conducting valuable work in other fields, it is usually not possible to specify how your donation will be used. In those circumstances, it is best to donate to a charity which doesn't use animals at all. Before giving money to a health-research charity that isn't approved by PETA, we recommend that you investigate their current policy on animal testing (policies can change, which is why a response from the charity itself is the most certain way to find out). Some charities will have that information on their websites, but you may need to contact others directly. If the charity does test on animals, please let them know that you will be donating your money to one which invests all its resources in effective, humane non-animal research instead. Large charities which still conduct or commission research on animals as of April 2008 include the following:
If you can, please let PETA know of any replies you receive from charities about their animal testing policy so that we can keep our records as up-to-date as possible. |
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