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About NEAVS
1995-2000:
TOWARD THE MILLENNIUM
There is, in all of us, a force
for good—the spark of compassion. Unfortunately, where animals
are concerned, not all of us have had that spark ignited. . . .
But of one thing I am certain—that once a person has had this
spark ignited, it will burn forever.
Cleveland Amory, NEAVS
president, 1987 - 1998
Cleveland Amory, NEAVS
President, 1987-1998, with Polar Bear |
In 1995 NEAVS celebrated its centennial by
hosting a major exhibit at the Boston Public Library highlighting
the Society's history, its founders and leaders and a historic survey
of the animal protection and liberation movements in the country.
President Cleveland Amory presented "Reverence for Life" awards to
animal activists from the six New England states in recognition of
their dedicated work against animal experimentation. He reminded members
that advances in modern nonanimal testing methods - methods which
would have been inconceivable to NEAVS' founders - would revolutionize
the way medical research would be carried on in the next century and
that NEAVS could be proud of the fact that it had helped fund these
methods and had educated the public about their effectiveness.
"Our radical founders set an impressive
example for us to emulate," he concluded, reminding his audience
that, "although we have by no means reached our goal, we are certainly
much closer to it than we were a century ago."
After ten years of dedicated service Cleveland
Amory resigned as president in 1998 and Theodora Capaldo, EdD, became
the Society's new president. Dr. Capaldo brought twenty years of
animal activism and expertise to the Society, having served on its
board as both treasurer and secretary in the 1980s and having served
as president of Psychologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
(PSYETA).
Theodora Capaldo,EdD,
NEAVS President, 1998-present, and Shima |
With Dr. Capaldo came a Board of Directors
with members representing the fields of psychology, medicine, veterinary
medicine, education, and the law. The new leadership at NEAVS reflected
the success of the Society's earlier educational efforts, as many
on the board had been galvanized to fight vivisection after reading
the Society's advertisements in the greater Boston newspapers in the
1960s. They were now in a position to effect real change for animals.
In 1992 the Wall Street Journal reported, "The biomedical
community may have ample cause to worry" as "the animal rights movement
has moved from being a fringe group to the mainstream during the last
decade."
This fact was emphasized in 1999 when representatives
of the group Recording Animal Advocacy interviewed individuals and
members of organizations - including officers at NEAVS - about their
contributions to the animal advocacy movement. This program was
undertaken with the purpose of making these oral histories, including
those of other prominent members of the movement, part of Columbia
University's Oral History Collection which documents important social
movements in America.
In NEAVS' Vet Ed Program,
veterinary students learn surgery skills performing carefully
supervised surgeries on abandoned or feral animals |
As the Society enters the twenty-first century
animal rights and environmental concerns have become parts of a paradigm
shift which is also occurring in philosophy, science, and theology.
This change is characterized by a rejection of the notion that humankind
has unlimited license to exploit or dominate other life forms. It
is the history of an American social movement which, along with women's
suffrage, child labor reform, emancipation, and human rights, is the
quest for a more compassionate society for ourselves and for all the
nonhuman animals with whom we share this planet. Earlier, Albert Schweitzer
had written, "The time is coming when people will be amazed that the
human race existed so long before it recognized that thoughtless injury
to life is incompatible with real ethics."
The battles will change in the next century
— some in the new age of biotechnology will be monumental,
for animals are still property under the law — and the tactics
to fight the battles will also change. But the Society's mission
will remain the same: to expose, oppose, and to end all harmful
experiments on living beings, whether human or nonhuman. And it
will carry on in the spirit of the seventeen courageous and principled
men and women who, in 1895, founded the New England Anti-Vivisection
Society.
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