Every year on this day I remember the liberation of the macaque baby “Britches” from the University Laboratory of California (ULC). The ALF has made this exemption. Britches, a five-week-old monkey baby, was separated from his mother shortly after his birth. The aim of the experiment was to test the effect of a device on the blind so that blind people are guided by warning signals. For this reason the eyelids of Britches had been sewn and a sonar device attached to him.
On April 20, 1985, some courageous ALF activists deactivated the alarm system of ULC, entered the lab, and freed Britches, along with other 460 laboratory animals.
The story of “Britches” is perhaps known, but less well-known is that due to this action, these cruel trials in UCR were no longer pursued. The eyes of the monkeys were also no more sewn. And ALF has written with this liberation a history in the fight against animal experiments.
After a lot of actions, demos, signatures we have made against animal experiments, I ask myself today what we have achieved against this criminal idiocy (animal experiments). Unfortunately not much.
After 40 years of fighting animal experiments, the EU has forbidden animal experiments on cosmetics by law on 11 March 2013. This was really a great success! But this is obligatory only for the EU. In China, for example, animal testing for cosmetics is mandatory. The requirements in China mean that companies who want to sell their products there, must have them tested on animals. This means that if a cosmetic company from Germany wants to have new customers in China, it has to participate the animal experiments. Although this company is animal-free in Germany.
Nevertheless, a boycott of animal experiments is possible only in the cosmetics sector.
In the drug area, on the other hand, a boycott is almost impossible. All medications, treatment methods, surgical techniques … etc. have been tested in animal experiments, and are still being tested. In most cases with no clinical benefit. Because what works with the animal, does not necessarily work for human beings. The reason is that the animal experimentation system, as known, is based on an incorrect methodological approach, that is: the diseases of humans are reduced to symptoms in experimental animals. The so-called “animal models” are produced in Labor animals. Cancer is produced in mice by injection of cancer cells or gene manipulation. These “animal models”, however, have nothing in common with human disease, and are therefore not suitable for curing human beings.
Cancer is a typical example of the chronic unsuccessfulness of animal experimentation medicine. I quote the opinion of researcher Dr. Richard Klausner, director of the American National Cancer Institute, 1998 “The history of cancer research is the history of how to cure cancer in mice. For decades, we have been curing cancer in mice, but in humans it just does not work “.
I still want to end my contribution to the day of the experimental animals with a positive message, which has sent me a friend recently.
“Maybe we need to stop thinking of animals as these little furry test tubes that can be or even should be controlled,” Joseph Garner, a behavioral scientist at the Stanford University Medical Center, and lead author of the study, told NPR.
“And maybe instead we should think of them as patients.”
Mice not ‘furry little people’: Researchers rethink animal testing as human trials fail
Mark (SAV Founder), has suffered from Multiple Sclerosis (MS) for over 17 years now. Animals do NOT suffer from MS; only humans. So, I ask, why then are we doing animal testing to find a cure for MS ? – Is this not like putting a car tyre onto a Boeing 747 and finding out if it can stand so many landings ? – it makes no sense; you test aircraft tyres on aircraft, so why try and find results for human illness by testing on animals ?
An animal trapped for fur will often chew its own leg off to escape the trap and death. Would a human chew off his own leg and survive ?
A woman who has a hysterectomy is advised not to raise her arms above her head for several weeks. When my dog was sterilised, we were out in the park playing ball within 2 days !
Animals and humans are not the same – they are very different; their body types are specific to their species. You cannot find cures to human illness by testing it (or falsely creating it as with MS) on an animal – they react differently and are certainly not duplicate models for the human species. Anyone who thinks they are is living in the past.
And yes, animals are still being used to find a cure for MS. Why does someone not investigate why the human species gets MS and animals don’t. Is it genetic ? – are there other reasons ? – that would be useful research instead of artificially creating something in an animal that the animal species does not even naturally suffer from in order to find cures for a human only disease.
And yes you have guessed it; we still MS test for MS using animals; and still we have no cure for MS in humans. I would say that all the time we test on animals we will never find a cure. Lets go outside the envelope and undertake some proper research which does not involve animal testing but which will be beneficial to human diseases.
I have an illness and want a cure – but the cure does not exist in animals which do not suffer from it in the first place !
As an MS sufferer and someone who wants a cure, I will always speak out AGAINST animal testing for human diseases. It makes no sense.
Posted on April 22, 2017 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
The song by ‘The Smiths’ which created more vegetarians in the UK than anything else !
‘The Smiths’ was led by frontman ‘Morrissey’, who you can see in the second video. Morrissey is a massive animal rights activist / campaigner – and his feelings about meat are reflected in the song. You can see more Morrissey by visiting the ‘About Us’ tab at the top and scrolling down to the section where videos are shown. ‘Everyday is like Sunday’ is a good example – great song and the video reflects that anti meat philosophy which he has – here is the video link to save time.
Below – 2 videos of ‘Meat is Murder’ by ‘The Smiths’
Above – ‘Morrissey’, or ‘Mozza’ as we call him in the UK. Top Man !
Whilst much of the world is doing its best to improve the situation, we now have the USA and the utter fool Trump as being the denier of all problems – except for Executive orders killing off wildlife; denying global warming; being angry with China – that is apart from when daughter Ivanka uses it (China) to have all her clothing line made cheaply there for export and then sale in the USA ! – ‘putting America first’ does not really ring true with the Trump family money making priorities –
The first three months of Trump’s presidency have brought an onslaught of attacks against the environment:
Resurrecting the dirty Keystone XL pipeline
Dismantling President Obama’s landmark Clean Power Plan
Threatening our oceans with dangerous offshore drilling
Lifting the moratorium on new coal leases on public lands
Rolling back critical clean car standards
That list only scratches the surface of Trump’s reckless, short-sighted policies, and he shows no signs of slowing down. But we’re in this for the long run — and with so many fights still ahead of us, we can’t leave a $100,000 gift on the table.
Simply put, this administration threatens our most fundamental environmental resources, essential to life on Earth: Water that is safe to drink. Air that is clean to breathe. Lands, rivers, and oceans where wildlife can thrive.
That’s what we’re fighting for — and it’s what you fight for when you stand with NRDC. Your tax-deductible gift will enable us to strike back in court against Trump’s outrageous attacks … hold corporations accountable when they poison our air and water … keep the pressure on our leaders to stand up for the environment … rally thousands of people to march at the upcoming Peoples Climate March … and defend our environment on all fronts.
There’s never been a better Earth Day to speak up for the wild. This year — thanks to a group of amazing volunteers — the Center for Biological Diversity will be tabling at more than 100 Earth Day events in all 50 states. We’ll have petitions to sign, advice on actions to take and pre-stamped postcards you can send to your member of Congress urging protection for endangered species, our climate and public lands.
On the first Earth Day since the election of Donald Trump, take a moment to make your voice heard.
Posted on April 21, 2017 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Mark,
I love working at SumOfUs. And it’s all because of YOU.
Thanks to you, we’ve been able to stand up to agri-giants like Bayer and Monsanto and give them a run for their money. We’re also closer than ever before to a global ban on deadly neonic pesticides.
It’s been a busy month on both sides of the Atlantic! I have two exciting updates to share with you:
We’ve made big strides to ban neonics in Canada A few weeks ago, we took your voices straight to the Canadian capital of Ottawa, where the government health agency is close to banning one of the deadliest bee-killing pesticides, imidacloprid.
Together with our friends at the David Suzuki Foundation, Équiterre and Avaaz, we let decision-makers know more than 5 million people all around the world want Canada to ban imidacloprid as soon as possible.
We also met with a representative from the Prime Minister’s Office to share our message.
Next up, we’ll be running a full-page ad in the Ottawa Hill Times — the paper that politicians read — to make sure they know why banning imidacloprid is so essential.
Stopping the merger from hell At the very same time, we took your message — that a Bayer-Monsanto merger would be a marriage from hell — right to the front door of the European Commission in Brussels.With farmers, beekeepers and environmental organisations, we delivered a letter signed by more than 200 organisations from all over Europe — calling on the Commissioner to stop this disastrous merger.
Our allies at Friends of the Earth pulled off this photo stunt and the pictures were picked up by news agencies all over the world. Now everyone knows what this marriage would look like:
On the same day, SumOfUs members from all over Europe emailed and tweeted their opposition against the merger at Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition. She could be our most important ally in stopping Bayer and Monsanto.
And because so many of you took action, we got Vestager’s attention:
As always, thanks for all that you do,
Anne, Liz and the team at SumOfUs
PS: All this is only possible thanks to your support! But we need to ramp up our campaign to protect the bees and stop Bayer from merging with Monsanto. If you can, please consider becoming a SumOfUs core member so we can keep up this fight together. Thank you!
Monday 24th April is the World Day For Laboratory Animals.
Check out a lot more on this and other lab animal campaigns at London based ‘Cruelty Free International’ (CFI) – formally known as the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) which was founded as long ago as 1898.
Read more about the fantastic work of, and many campaigns from the BUAV and its change recently to CFI at the following –
Posted on April 21, 2017 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO): The dog meat trade in Asia is an unregulated industry imposing dangerous health risks.
We are urging the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization(UNFAO) to join us in the fight to end the dog meat trade in Asia. The ugly truth is that dog tonics and soup are harvested and created in an unregulated industry in the most disgusting and unsanitary conditions. From start to finish the treatment of the dogs is incredibly cruel and inhumane.
We are reaching out to the UNFAO to help us bring an end to the dog meat trade in South Korea.
How does Dog Meat Cruelty fit into “Eco-Paradise”?
Hwacheon County in Gangwon Province seeks to achieve the status of “Eco-Paradise”, the reason why they pursued Sister City agreements with two American Indian Nation tribes in 2005. They sought to learn from them, how to live in harmony with the natural environment. But where does dog meat farming fit into “Eco-Paradise”?
Let’s tell the Korean cities that they can no longer hide their shameful practices. It’s time to wake up and join the modern world.
Take action today to urge Hwacheon’s Sister Cities to help in the fight to end the cruelty toward our best friends.
CARE is building a safe ‘Healing Shelter’ for over 300 dogs in their Organization.
Sharing for CARE:
Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth (CARE), is currently protecting over 300 dogs at their no-kill shelters. Yet, the shelters are built in a temporary residence and the time that they need to move out has come. They need their land to permanently stay and to safely protect their rescued dogs from the harsh environment. Their ‘Healing Shelter Program’ is looking forward to solving this problem.
Clock is Ticking! This may be the once in a lifetime opportunity for the Korean dogs.
Some opportunities only comes once in a life time. PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic in South Korea might be one of those opportunities. What would you do to save your best friends from horrific cruelty and unimaginable suffering? Probably a lot. But we only ask a few minutes of your time (more if you can) to help speak out for these animals who have no voice. Feeling sorry for them would not change anything. Only action can. Thank you for caring!!
