Americans for Medical Progress Educational Foundation, 421 King Street, Suite 401, Alexandria, VA 22314-3121, (703)-836-9595, FAX: (703)-836-9594, e-mail: AMP@AMProgress.org, Web: www.AMProgress.org
This organization offers a packet on the need to use animals in research. It contains a Program Update of the latest Americans for Medical Progress (AMP) campaigns, including its Hollywood Information Project which it claims is turning the tide against animal activism in Hollywood. Both US magazine and New York published articles attesting to this declining influence of the activists. Other examples of AMP's activities -- in Congress and the media -- are also portrayed. The packet also contains such articles as "The Naked Truth About the Animal Rights War on Biomedical Research" and reprints of articles attacking animal rightists from a variety of news media, among them Newsweek, The New York Post, The Guardian (Manchester), The Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal. They quote such extreme animal rightists' statements as "Even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS . . . we'd be against it."
The great threat of the animal rights movement is its advocacy of violence. They firebombed a Michigan State University research facility, destroying more than 32 years of research. At Texas Tech University, research equipment costing more thatn $70,000 was destroyed. Attacks at the University of Arizona destroyed research on a treatment and vaccine for cryptosporidium, the diarrhea-causing bacterium which sickened thousands and killed 100 people in Milwaukee.
The Humane Society, once viewed as a moderate on animal rights, has become extremist now. Their yearly income is nearly $40 million, but they do not fund any animal shelters with that money. Their activities are focused on propaganda against animal research, against hunting, and against any other use of animals. The Humane Society Vice President, according to AMP, wrote in his book, The Inhumane Society, that "The life of an ant and that of my child should be granted equal consideration."
Perhaps the most valuable inclusion in this packet is a listing of the benefits of animal research to animals as well as to humans. Many of the drugs and surgical procedures successfully used to treat humans are of equal value to animals, not to mention the numerous vaccines which have been developed, through animal research, to prevent disease in both humans and animals. In vitro fertilization, originally developed to help infertile couples, is now used to preserve endangered animals.
The AMP News e-mail alert system can keep you informed on the latest developments regarding this dangerous campaign against efforts to conquer illness. Use the e-mail address given above; the news service is free.
- Irma S. Jarcho
(Editor's Note: The reviewer expresses her personal opinions on the issue of animal rights in her column.)
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