In Defense of Animals is organizing for World Week
for Animals in Laboratories 2000 and working with activists around the
world to make this year's events more productive than ever.
WWAIL is truly global with actions and activities taking
place in countries around the world. If you have friends with groups or
organizations inside or outside the U.S. please invite them to
participate.
Here in the United States, the National Institutes of
Health (NIH) is currently undergoing the largest expansion in its
history; this bodes ill for the animals who will be used in NIH funded
laboratories across the nation and throughout the world.
NIH pays researchers in Canada to dose piglets with
cocaine. It pays scientists in Sweden to sever the spinal cords of rats
and investigators in Israel to implant human tumors into rats. NIH funds
French researchers to induce cancer in mice. NIH hires scientists in
Australia to infect monkeys with HIV, Chinese researchers to infect dogs
with hookworms, and investigators in New Zealand to damage the umbilical
cords of lambs. In England, NIH is paying people to examine rat brains.
U.S. law is failing miserably to protect animals in U.S.
laboratories, so it has no hope of protecting animals in foreign
laboratories even if federal dollars are breeding, buying and feeding
the animals in those labs.
In Defense of Animals (IDA) urges you to become involved
and make this a year the vivisection industry is called to task across
the globe. We hope you will brainstorm with us as we prepare and plan.
Vivisectors in Great Britain, Japan, Israel, and everywhere need to look
up and know that in front of every lab door people with good hearts and
resolute determination are demanding an end to the cruelties and waste
of health care monies.
If you are looking for issues to highlight during your
events, consider promoting three goals that we believe are worthy of
your support during this year's WWAIL activities.
1. Support of the Greenwood Bill, H.R. 3514 through
letter writing and phone lobbying. The Greenwood Bill would establish a
permanent retirement sanctuary for "surplus" chimpanzees in the U.S.
2. An immediate ban on all invasive or otherwise harmful
experimentation on chimpanzees.
3. A 5% reallocation of the funds currently being spent
on animal-based research to non-animal-based research per year, until a
50% reallocation is achieved. Then, an evaluation of the impact of this
reallocation and a determination of whether the reallocations should
continue.
These three modest goals are attainable. They reflect
current scientific knowledge and the growing public understanding and
acceptance of other animals as our neighbors deserving of our respect.
We hope you will join us in promoting these goals during the week of
April 23 and will urge your friends to become involved as well.
No matter what your focus might be this year: dogs labs,
primate vivisection, Xenotransplantation, genetic engineering, or any of
the host of problems deserving attention, IDA has the capability to help
publicize the events and efforts you plan for World Week. We have
thousands of media outlets in our fax database and a strong desire to
promote a resolute message of compassion, rational science, and public
involvement. Check out the available resources at the WWAIL website:
<http://www.wwail.org/>
World Week will span two full weekends and stretch from
April 22 through April 30; this will encompass Easter and Earth Day on
Saturday the 22nd.
For more information contact:
Rick Bogle
rbogle@idausa.org
(415) 388 9641 x19
131 Camino Alto, Suite E
Mill Valley, CA 94941
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