This week, AAVS's affiliate, the Alternatives Research & Development Foundation (ARDF) announces its grants totaling $220,000 to fund six extraordinary projects that will advance scientific research without the use of animals. This represents a record sum for ARDF's annual grant program, now in its 22nd year.
The alternatives being created are truly amazing. They will help to replace animals and contribute to scientific knowledge. Some 2015 highlights:
For 35 years, AAVS has been a leader in the area of alternatives. Your commitment to our mission helps to advance humane science and reward researchers who are reshaping the future to end the unnecessary suffering of animals. Thank you for sharing our vision.
Improve Treatment for All Research Primates.
Last month, doctors with the Physicians Committee joined Nashville-area
residents outside the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville to
protest the school's use of animals to train emergency medicine residents. A
Physicians Committee-sponsored billboard cautioned residents and visitors,
"Warning: You Are Entering Vanderbilt's Substandard Medical Training Zone!"
Meanwhile, gas pump topper advertisements were positioned at gas stations
surrounding the campus and urged "Vanderbilt: First, Do No Harm," explaining
that a majority of emergency medicine residencies use modern training methods
while Vanderbilt continues to use animals.
Leading up to the demonstration, the Physicians Committee sent more than 14,000 petitions from physicians and concerned citizens asking Jeffrey R. Balser, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the School of Medicine, to improve medical education standards at Vanderbilt University by ending animal use in favor of human-based methods.
Please help us modernize medical training at Vanderbilt! Join the efforts of concerned physicians and local residents by e-mailing the top decision-makers at Vanderbilt and telling them to end this educationally and ethically inferior practice immediately.
The training at Vanderbilt involves cutting into live pigs and goats to practice emergency medical procedures. These procedures involve making incisions into each animal's chest to insert a tube, placing a catheter in a large vein, and inserting a needle below the breastbone to remove fluid from the sac surrounding the heart. At the end of the training sessions, the animals are killed.
This animal use is at odds with current standards of practice in the United States. Today, 86 percent of surveyed emergency medicine residencies (116 of 134) in the country use human-based medical simulation, cadavers, and task trainers. These include prominent regional programs such as Duke University, Emory University, Wake Forest University, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In fact, Vanderbilt's own Advanced Trauma Life Support program teaches the same procedures using simulators. The university already has a state-of-the-art simulation center—the Center for Experiential Learning and Assessment—that could provide the resources to replace the use of animals immediately.
Please ask chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos and School of Medicine dean Jeffrey R. Balser, M.D., Ph.D., to stop using animals and make the switch to simulation—because Nashville deserves better.
Victoria’s Dirty Secret: Paying for Cruel Tests on Animals in China.
You may know from some of our earlier messages about the Physician Committee's efforts to end the use of dogs in invasive, scientifically flawed heart failure experiments at Wayne State University in Detroit. Although we have previously described what those animals endure, I would like to share a new presentation by veterinarian Sara Busch, D.V.M.
In this short video, Dr. Busch, who was brought on by the Physicians Committee to analyze records from Wayne State, tells the stories of the dogs Joanie and Squiggy, who arrived at the university together on May 31, 2013.
Dr. Busch reveals what she found in the records of Joanie and Squiggy, highlighting pages of actual documents obtained from Wayne State through the Michigan Freedom of Information Act. While these are just two of the hundreds of dogs who have been used in heart failure and hypertension experiments at Wayne State over the last 20 years, Dr. Busch’s presentation explains that these two are not outliers.
Please take a few minutes to watch this informative inside look at what is happening at Wayne State. And then help us put an end to these experiments and sign our petition to the president of Wayne State University.
Thank you for taking action.
The alternatives being created are truly amazing. They will help to replace animals and contribute to scientific knowledge. Some 2015 highlights:
- In a unique proposal with immediate application, a project in New York will establish bat cell lines to prevent bats from being used in disease research.
- Another project at the University of Pittsburgh applies new microfluidic technology to studying the progression of common liver disease.
- Improving the study of how drugs affect the central nervous system, a human cell-based in vitro model will be validated.
- Two veterinarians at Washington State University are finalizing development of a simulated canine model for laparoscopic surgical training.
For 35 years, AAVS has been a leader in the area of alternatives. Your commitment to our mission helps to advance humane science and reward researchers who are reshaping the future to end the unnecessary suffering of animals. Thank you for sharing our vision.
Improve Treatment for All Research Primates.
Target: Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack
Goal: Improve the living conditions of all research apes and monkeys based on their basic needs as advanced animals.
New regulations in the treatment of research chimpanzees have begun, but 112,000 research primates are still being subjected to conditions deemed abusive and outdated thanks to new research into their behavior. The Animal Legal Defense Fund pressed to help 1,700 chimpanzees reach freedom and improved conditions, and the National Institutes of Health are now retiring or improving the lives of 360 within their care, but many animals are being left out of the new plans.
Primates are the closest relatives to humans in the animal kingdom and need much of the same things we do. Wild apes develop and learn from their parents and the rest of their species and live with almost constant interaction with others and exercise as they obtain their own food and shelter. In captivity, they are often left in small cages, some allegedly with nothing but a plastic toy to keep them company during infancy.
Giving all primates the proper care while they aid in furthering important research is a necessity. They should be given the best care possible for their service and not have to endure conditions unnatural to their species. Tell the Department of Agriculture to tighten the rules around treatment for both research chimpanzees and other primates.
Dear Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack,
Plans are being made to help improve the conditions and push the retirement of research chimpanzees, but there are still over a hundred thousand research primates who are living in confinement that is against the nature of these curious and social species.
Research animals are vital to finding cures that can saves lives, but showing them compassion and a high quality of life for their service is something that should be a requirement. By improving conditions in which researchers keep their animals and punishing those who do not stay in line with animals rights, the importance of the research animal can be better respected.
Apes and monkeys should get to spend their time in an environment where they can interact with other members of their species, grow up with their parents and move around, not be confined to isolating cages. Increase standards for chimpanzee treatment in research labs working under the Department of Agriculture and show them that their service is valued.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Skeeze
Target: Christopher D. Hillyer, MD, President and CEO of the New York Blood Center
Goal: Do not stop feeding chimpanzees that company promised to provide care for.
Chimpanzees may soon starve because the organization that said it would provide the animals with food after subjecting them to massive amounts of testing has allegedly decided it’s no longer necessary to do so. If the organization refuses to continue providing care for these chimpanzees, many more companies will likely think it’s OK to treat animals in this deplorable manner.
For 30 years, the NYBC (New York Blood Center) performed medical research on a colony of 66 chimpanzees that were callously snatched from their forest homes. Upon their retirement, the organization’s previous Director, Alfred Prince, wrote in a scientific journal that Monkey Island would become a “dedicated full-time sanctuary” for the animals, but the company now says it will no longer fund the animals’ food.
The NYBC is in no way hurting for cash as it pulls in hundreds of millions of dollars every year. Furthermore, the cost of taking care of these animals does not exceed $360,000 annually.
Sign this petition and tell the NYBC that it needs to do what it said it was going to do in the first place and continue providing these chimpanzees with a livable sanctuary by making sure they are protected and fed. If their heartless ways are overlooked, many more unethical executives are liable to follow in their footsteps.
Dear Dr. Hillyer,
Your organization made a commitment to provide several chimpanzees with a livable sanctuary after they were no longer needed for medical testing. If you don’t set an example for other companies that will one day also retire their animals, your actions will show the world that you do not have any sense of morality.
In 2005, one of your directors stated in the American Society of Primatologists Bulletin that the island where the animals were being retired would become “a dedicated full-time sanctuary.” A sanctuary is a place where animals are not only protected from harm but where they are also taken care of for the rest of their lives. Taking care of these animals requires feeding them, as they are unable to successfully hunt and scavenge on their own after being held for years in captivity.
While the cost of taking care of these animals is $30,000 a month, your organization makes hundreds of millions of dollars every year. Therefore, you are able to afford to continue taking care of them.
For all of these reasons, I urge you to uphold your responsibility by continuing to take care of the chimpanzees your company retired. Since these animals helped you to reach new medical feats for years, the least you can do is provide them with food and a relaxing home for the remainder of their days.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Matthew Hoelscher
Target: Communities Secretary Greg Clark
Goal: Stop farm that breeds beagle puppies and other animals for drug testing.
A facility that will breed beagle puppies solely for the purpose of using them for laboratory experiments has been approved despite the massive amount of people in the United Kingdom who vehemently oppose using animals in drug testing.
The U.K. Planning Inspectorate has decided to overturn the decision to not build the site. Communities Secretary Greg Clark approved of an appeal by Yorkshire Evergreen that will allow them to breed beagles and other animals for scientific testing at their site in Grimston, North Yorkshire. The site will also perform vivisection and drug experiments.
Dogs used in scientific experiments are forced to inhale toxic substances through masks, are strapped in harnesses so that they can’t escape for drug injections, and force fed through tubes. Popular substances tested on dogs include pharmaceutical drugs, weed killer, and industrial chemicals.
This is the second facility in Britain that breeds beagles specifically for science experiments. The other facility is located in Harlan, Cambridgeshire, where around 3,000 beagles are bred to be used for experimentation. Vivisection is a controversial procedure and animal rights proponents are outraged at the newest facility being opened. The National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) said that the latest approval of the new facility is a “betrayal of the animals, the public and science.”
The government ignored thousands of people who signed petitions and decided to approve a controversial facility. These poor beagle pups and other animals forced to endure cruel acts for experimentation do not deserve this injustice. Please sign the petition below and urge the U.K. Planning Inspectorate to reverse their approval for this new facility.
Dear Mr. Greg Clark,
I am deeply saddened to hear the U.K. Planning Inspectorate has decided to overturn the decision to not build a facility that will breed beagle puppies and other animals for scientific experiments. This decision was made despite the millions of people who protested it and it will subject these poor animals to cruel experiments that they do not deserve to endure.
Beagle puppies used for experiments are forced to inhale toxic substances by having masks strapped on their faces and are injected with drugs. Beagles are chosen for their sweet and loving nature. It is disgusting that the government has approved of a facility that will allow this and it is out of step with their movement towards using alternative methods for animal testing.
I am sorry to hear that you are choosing to ignore so many people who know that this is wrong and not in line with the United Kingdom’s stance on animal testing. Please reverse the decision to approve of this facility and stop the cruel fate of thousands of animals.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo credit: Garrett 222
How to Make DIY Natural Make-Up and Why You Should Make the Switch.
>Personally, I am not a fan of the cosmetic industry. The one of the biggest problems I have with them are that they load up their products with nasty ingredients like lead and other carcinogens which sit on your skin all day.
No. Thank. you.
Cosmetics companies may use any ingredient or raw material, except for color additives and a few prohibited substances, without government review or approval. About one in eight of the 82,000 ingredients used in personal care products are industrial chemicals, including carcinogens, pesticides, reproductive toxins, and hormone disruptors. To top it off, U.S. federal law allows companies to leave many chemicals off labels, including nanomaterials, ingredients considered trade secrets, and components of fragrance.
The scariest of all? More than 500 products sold in the U.S. contain ingredients banned in cosmetics in Japan, Canada or the European Union. and here we are, buying this stuff up like it’s the cool thing to do.
So what are you looking to avoid in your makeup products?
Well, a lot of stuff. A LOT. Go grab a couple hair or skin products you have and check for thedirty dozen (also check their toxicity here).
- BHA and BHT – endocrine disruption; possible carcinogen
- Coal tar dyes – possible carcinogen; may contain heavy metals toxic to the brain
- DEA – reactions formed can be carcinogenic
- Dibutyl phthalate – reproductive toxicant; endocrine disruptor
- Formaldehyde-releasing preservatives – known carcinogen
- Parabens – suspected endocrine disruptor; may interfere with male reproductive functions (i’ll showcase this debate in a TNT)
- Parfum (fragrance) – allergies; asthma; known carcinogen; neurotoxicity
- PEG compounds – possible carcinogen
- Petrolatum – possible carcinogen
- Siloxanes – endocrine disruptor; reproductive toxicant
- Sodium laureth sulfate – possible carcinogen
- Triclosan – antibiotic resistance in bacteria; endocrine disruptor
The full cosmetic Dirty Dozen list from the David Suzuki Foundation to learn more.
Solution? Make your own makeup OR buy organic and/or natural makeup from trusted companies. It’s an easier transition than you think!
Alright, convinced to switch? Make these organic and/or natural makeup products:
Basic Ingredients You’ll Need:
- Kaolin clay or arrowroot powder (Foundation Base)
- Unsweetened cocoa powder
- Activated charcoal
- Cinnamon (please make sure it’s Ceylon)
- Dried hibiscus, alkanet root powder, and/or beet powder
- Mica powder
- Iron oxides (Red/black/yellow/brown for pigmentation)
- White organic face lotion/moisturizer (For liquid foundation only)
- Aloe vera gel (For eyeliner)
- Shea butter (For eyeliner)
Grab a bowl, spoon, and sieve to mix each thing!
1. Powder Foundation
- Mix your base powder with very tiny amounts of iron oxides at a time to get the perfect shade. As you add the pigments, mix very, very well before adding more. Note that the color of this powder when dampened might be different, and you can test it on the back of your hand. Zinc oxide can also be mixed in for full spectrum sun protection! I personally use plain kaolin clay – no pigments – for a setting powder.
2. Bronzer
- Mix a base powder with cocoa, cinnamon, iron oxides, and/or mica to get the color you like. If you want more of a contour color without the shimmer, leave the mica out.
3. Eye Shadow
- Mix any ingredients above to get the colors you want. This is really one DIY makeup product that you have to play around with! I always feel like a mad makeup scientist – it’s so much fun! Right now I have kaolin clay mixed with brown iron oxides and activated charcoal for different shades of brown. You can add mica for some shimmer, too!
4. Blush
- Mix your base with the dried and powdered hibiscus flower, alkanet root powder, and/or beet powder until you get a color you like. You can add cinnamon, cocoa powder, or iron oxides for more pigmentation too. Note that it will look darker mixed than it will be on your skin, so you’ll need to test it as you mix. Also, alkanet root powder will be darker than hibiscus. Also also (ha), you will need to add a few drops of water to get the hibiscus to make a blush with the base powder (no more than about 1/4 teaspoon) for a small batch of blush. Add mica for some shimmer!
5. Liquid Foundation
- Make your powder foundation and then mix with an organic white cream/moisturizer. You may need to make your base powder a tad darker, depending on the shade and which cream you use. This foundation will be light coverage. You can also add a small amount of zinc oxide for full spectrum sun protection.
6. Eyeliner
- Mix 1 part activated charcoal, 1/2 part black iron oxide, and either 1/2 part aloe vera gel, or 1/3 part shea butter for black eyeliner. You can add a small amount of mica powder for a little shimmer. Mix very well and store in an air-tight container. You’ll have to use a brush to apply. Feel free to play around with the ratios to get the perfect consistency for your eyelids. You can add cocoa powder or brown iron oxide for brown eyeliner.
Need your makeup to stay in place for awhile?
Homemade Makeup Setting Spray
Grab a little spray bottle. Put 1/2 teaspoon of vegetable glycerin in it. Add 1 teaspoon water. Add 1/2 cup rose water. Shake well and apply before you put makeup on. Keep this in your fridge! OR you can just mix 1 part glycerin to 3 parts water and use the same way. Easy peasy – and best of all – it will not clog your pores!
Enjoy your DIY, toxin-free makeup!
*Note - Please do not inhale any of these powdered products! Inhalation of mica and iron oxides can be toxic.
Lead image source: Wikimedia Commons
 Outside the Vanderbilt
Medical Center, doctors and Nashville-area residents joined the Physicians
Committee to demonstrate against the school's use of live animals to train
emergency medicine residents. |
Leading up to the demonstration, the Physicians Committee sent more than 14,000 petitions from physicians and concerned citizens asking Jeffrey R. Balser, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the School of Medicine, to improve medical education standards at Vanderbilt University by ending animal use in favor of human-based methods.
Please help us modernize medical training at Vanderbilt! Join the efforts of concerned physicians and local residents by e-mailing the top decision-makers at Vanderbilt and telling them to end this educationally and ethically inferior practice immediately.
The training at Vanderbilt involves cutting into live pigs and goats to practice emergency medical procedures. These procedures involve making incisions into each animal's chest to insert a tube, placing a catheter in a large vein, and inserting a needle below the breastbone to remove fluid from the sac surrounding the heart. At the end of the training sessions, the animals are killed.
This animal use is at odds with current standards of practice in the United States. Today, 86 percent of surveyed emergency medicine residencies (116 of 134) in the country use human-based medical simulation, cadavers, and task trainers. These include prominent regional programs such as Duke University, Emory University, Wake Forest University, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In fact, Vanderbilt's own Advanced Trauma Life Support program teaches the same procedures using simulators. The university already has a state-of-the-art simulation center—the Center for Experiential Learning and Assessment—that could provide the resources to replace the use of animals immediately.
Please ask chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos and School of Medicine dean Jeffrey R. Balser, M.D., Ph.D., to stop using animals and make the switch to simulation—because Nashville deserves better.
Victoria’s Dirty Secret: Paying for Cruel Tests on Animals in China.
Victoria has a new little secret: She's no "angel" for animals. After years of upholding its policy never to test on animals, the company has let down compassionate consumers everywhere by choosing profits over principles. Victoria's Secret has confirmed to PETA that it will begin selling in China—and that means it will be required to pay for cruel and archaic tests on animals. Although the company, owned by L Brands, Inc., fully understands the Chinese government's requirements for tests on animals for cosmetics, it has chosen to enter this market anyway. Victoria's Secret has been removed from PETA's list of companies that don't test on animals and has been placed on our list of companies that do test on animals. (However, L Brands' other companies, including Bath & Body Works, Henri Bendel, and La Senza, are not expanding into China and remain committed to their cruelty-free policies.)
Since PETA first exposed that some formerly cruelty-free companies were paying for tests on animals in order to sell their products in China, tens of thousands of compassionate consumers have spoken out and expressed their outrage. Fortunately, PETA has received pledges from a number of companies—including The Body Shop, Urban Decay, NYX Cosmetics, Yes To Inc., Jack Black, Paula's Choice, 100% Pure, Jane Iredale, and others—that they will never sell in China while animal tests are required. We've also worked to convince companies selling in China to withdraw from that market until tests on animals are no longer required. These companies include John Paul Mitchell Systems, Dermalogica, Pangea Organics, Nature's Gate, Juice Beauty, and LOGOCOS Naturkosmetik AG.
Please tell Victoria's Secret that cruelty isn't sexy and that you won't buy its products until the company is 100 percent cruelty-free again. Click Here to help!
Animal Testing Is WRONG—You Can Help Stop It
Right now, rabbits and other defenseless animals are being poisoned, burned, and killed in crude and deadly experiments. PETA is working to stop this outrageous cruelty—and today, you can help us by making a tax-deductible gift to strengthen our attention-grabbing campaigns, groundbreaking investigations, and other efforts that are making a tremendous impact for animals in laboratories. Click Here To Help!
You may know from some of our earlier messages about the Physician Committee's efforts to end the use of dogs in invasive, scientifically flawed heart failure experiments at Wayne State University in Detroit. Although we have previously described what those animals endure, I would like to share a new presentation by veterinarian Sara Busch, D.V.M.
In this short video, Dr. Busch, who was brought on by the Physicians Committee to analyze records from Wayne State, tells the stories of the dogs Joanie and Squiggy, who arrived at the university together on May 31, 2013.
Dr. Busch reveals what she found in the records of Joanie and Squiggy, highlighting pages of actual documents obtained from Wayne State through the Michigan Freedom of Information Act. While these are just two of the hundreds of dogs who have been used in heart failure and hypertension experiments at Wayne State over the last 20 years, Dr. Busch’s presentation explains that these two are not outliers.
Please take a few minutes to watch this informative inside look at what is happening at Wayne State. And then help us put an end to these experiments and sign our petition to the president of Wayne State University.
