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NEAVS
NEAVS eNEWS | March 2014
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It’s Good for Them and Good for Us
Ask your representative to end cosmetics testing on animals

white rabbit 3If you haven’t had a chance yet, please ask your U.S. representative to co-sponsor the Humane Cosmetics Act (H.R. 4148), a bill to end cosmetics testing on animals in the U.S. It will only take seconds with our form!

Animal testing is unnecessary and unsafe. Far more accurate human-based cell and tissue testing methods exist, as we have well-documented on our website. So, why would we continue to rely on archaic testing methods that are not predictive of human response and incredibly cruel?
 

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The Humane Cosmetics Act not only ends the needless suffering of millions of rabbits, mice, rats, guinea pigs, and other animals, it would benefit human health by ensuring safer products.

 

Chimp Haven welcomes its newest arrivals

Last month 18 more chimpanzees from the New Iberia Research Center (NIRC) arrived at Chimp Haven (CH)! In total, 68 of the 110 chimpanzees scheduled to go to CH from NIRC are now living the rest of their lives in peace and comfort.

Chimp Haven welcoming party
Welcome Allison, Ashley, Chicken, Cindy, Coco, Dino, Fanny, Gary, Hayden, Heather, Hillary, Pearl, Pepi, PG, Simpson, Shone, Shelby, and Toya! (Chimp Haven)

An additional 42 are scheduled to arrive by the summer. These are the chimpanzees NEAVS and others worked so hard for in 2012 to ensure they were retired to sanctuary, and not transferred to another lab. After our advocacy, the National Institutes of Health reversed an earlier decision and announced it would allow all of the NIRC chimpanzees to go to sanctuary instead of only 10. NEAVS donated $100,000 to Chimp Haven as seed money for the necessary new construction. Soon after, Bob Barker’s generosity provided the remaining funds needed to complete the habitat.

Chimp Haven construction
Construction rolls on at Chimp Haven (Chimp Haven)

“This is just one example of how NEAVS remains committed to our mission to get all chimpanzees out of labs and into sanctuary,” says NEAVS President Theodora Capaldo, EdD. “Thanks to your support we will soon see more than 100 happy chimpanzees with new lives ahead of them. And we won’t stop until every single chimp is out of every single lab.” 

You can help by contributing to NEAVS’ Sanctuary Fund
– all donations will go toward work to get them out.

Rutgers scientist is 2014-15 recipient of inaugural fellowship award
Grant awarded for non-animal testing research

Serom Lee
Serom Lee, 2014 PhD candidate

NEAVS/AFAAR is proud to announce that Serom Lee, a June 2014 PhD candidate from Rutgers University, is the recipient of our inaugural Fellowship Grant for Alternatives to Animal Research in Women's Health and Sex Differences. Congratulations, Serom, on behalf of all our supporters! She was among several worthy candidates that NEAVS/AFAAR wishes to again thank for their applications.

Serom's postdoc research aims to provide a crucial missing piece to current methods in skin allergen testing. Animal tests are often not predictive of human response, besides being expensive and unethical. And at this time there is no standalone non-animal test to determine whether products may cause skin allergic responses. The project will develop a microchip using human cells to more accurately and efficiently predict allergy responses.

More specifically, the project will focus on allergic reactions among women. Biological sex differences make it problematic – even unscientific – to rely on data derived mainly or exclusively from men. Yet clinical trials traditionally use men (due to potential complications from pregnancy or hormonal cycles).

Why the connection? If data from men cannot always translate to women, it follows that relying on results of studies derived from animal data is even riskier. NEAVS sees projects like Serom's, supported by our Fellowship Grant, as groundbreaking contributions to arguments for better science. Emphasis should be on new and focused alternatives, rather than continual reliance on limited and even dangerous results from animal studies. Serom will be providing us with regular updates on her progress!

More on biological sex differences …

Dissection Choice: New Hampshire and Beyond!

FrogWe’re happy to announce the New Hampshire Board of Education, along with science teachers, has drafted a statewide Dissection Choice policy recommendation that encourages teachers to respect a student's right to choose alternatives to dissecting formerly living animals. New Hampshire schools allow individual teachers to decide certain policies for themselves. However, Board of Education endorsement of the need to provide alternatives would go a long way in guaranteeing teachers will follow its lead.

NEAVS, after collaborating with teachers and the Board of Education, endorsed the proposed policy’s language. We offered the use of our expert resources, including our website and loan library, to support teachers and students interested in progressive and humane science education.

The policy will be up for a vote at an upcoming Board of Education meeting (TBA). NEAVS will attend and offer testimony as we work to see New England become 100% Dissection Choice, one of our science education goals.

“It is a tragedy that currently only 16 states and the District of Columbia protect Dissection Choice as a student right,” says NEAVS President Theodora Capaldo, EdD. “This is unacceptable in a nation that prides itself for its academic excellence. If there is even one U.S. student being denied the right of their compassion and conscience, our job is not done.”


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NEAVS is a Boston-based, national animal advocacy organization dedicated to replacing animal research and testing with alternatives that are ethically, humanely, and scientifically superior.
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In This Issue ...

NEAVS/AFAAR Fellowship Grant winner announced

Dissection Choice in New Hampshire

Cigarette maker ends animal testing

Poll shows jump in opposition to animal testing

Report, hearing calls attention to absence of women in medical studies

The Society for Women’s Health Research recently called on Congress to hold a hearing on the lack of data from women in biomedical research, while Brigham and Women’s Hospital just released a report on the issue called “Sex-Specific Medical Research: Why Women’s Health Can’t Wait.”

Coinciding with NEAVS/AFAAR awarding our first Fellowship Grant for Alternatives to Animal Research in Women's Health and Sex Differences (see story), both acknowledge the reality that all of science should be concerned about sex differences in research results as great harm has come from not understanding this connection. 

Work within science itself has always been an important ally. Our pressing argument: if research data is different even between male and female humans, why do we continue using animals? 

Why Women's Health Can't Wait


Cigarette maker Lorillard bans animal testing

Last month Lorillard Inc., the nation’s third-biggest tobacco company and maker of Newport cigarettes, announced it had ended animal testing unless “necessary” to meet regulatory requirements (the fact that this “necessity” is false is being proven and more readily accepted every day).

Previous tests included forcing animals to inhale cigarette smoke, eat tobacco, and have cigarette tar painted on their skin.
 

Is social media turning Americans against animal research?

According to a recent study, since 2001 there has been a 12% increase in those who consider animal testing “morally wrong." The largest increase was among those aged 18-29; now 54% of them oppose – and that’s a majority vote!

Graph

The research team suggests the Internet may be a major factor, as animal protection organizations have a strong online presence.
 

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