HB 6329: "An Act Concerning Dissection Choice"

HOW YOU CAN HELP

1. Let your senator know you support a student’s right to a cruelty-free education. It’s easy, please use this form.
    
2. Please be sure to thank your representative for helping to pass dissection choice in Connecticut and ask them to let their Senate colleagues know this is important to them and their constituents!

For more background, visit our our Objecting to Dissection and Dissection Alternatives webpages.

April 20-28 is World Week for Animals in Laboratories, a time to reflect on and share with others the reasons why animal research and testing must end. In honor of WWAIL, please help make a difference for animals in labs.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

1. Be a Voice for Animals by Educating Others: The first step for change is helping people become aware a problem exists. Because of the outreach work of NEAVS, every day growing numbers are realizing there are better AND humane alternatives to using animals in labs. Send your name and address to info@neavs.org and we will send you info packs to help you educate others. Table at the library, community events, school, work, etc. with brochures, petitions, factsheets, flyers, and more!

2. Promote NEAVS Online: Do you have a website or blog? Do you work for a company with a popular site? Do you follow like-minded blogs? If you said yes to any of these, please consider requesting placement of NEAVS and Project R&R ads and banners. And if you haven’t yet, please like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

3. Donate Now: From your $30 yearly donation to a $5 monthly pledge and beyond, every dollar from supporters like you amounts to thousands a year to put to work for animals in labs. How much you give is up to you, but your donation and those of your friends and family help us raise the funds needed to do our work and keep our promise to animals in all labs.

Thank you, Supporters!

1. Support alternatives to animal testing: Toxicity and product testing uses living animals to test hazardous substances. Tests such as those for acute toxicity slowly poisons them with more and more doses of a substance – all without any relief for their pain and suffering. Those who do not die are killed at the end. Millions of bodies, many of which are considered pathogenic or hazardous waste, must be disposed – ending up in our water, soil, and air. Call 1-888-INFO-FDA (1-888-463-6332) or email the U.S. Federal Drug Administration and ask them to require alternatives and stop permitting archaic animal-based testing.
    
2. Go cruelty-free product shopping: Cruelty-free products – as well as the processes by which they are produced – are more environmentally friendly than those tested on animals, less likely to contain harmful chemicals, more likely to use natural substances, and safer for you, the Earth, and the animals. Email or visit our Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics page for free Leaping Bunny cruelty-free shopping guides and apps.
    
3. Support alternatives in education: Many animals are taken from natural habitats and used for dissection, contributing to the depletion of species diversity and ecosystem imbalance. Preserving and discarding specimens carries environmental risks. Toxic chemicals such as formaldehyde, identified as a carcinogen and designated a hazardous air and water pollutant, are used to preserve. The toxic waste generated by specimen dissection is dangerous for students, teachers, the public, and the Earth (read more). Call your local schools to make certain students can choose cruelty-free alternatives to specimen dissection.

Airlines transport primates packed into small wooden crates to research facilities worldwide, including to the U.S. Some die in transport because of the deplorable conditions of being shipped as cargo. Others endure and survive only to reach a cruel fate in research. 

More and more transportation and airline companies are ending the practice of shipping primates destined for laboratories, and this is making an impact on the international primate trade. In the past year, Fed Ex and UPS announced they would not transport any mammal for research. Dozens of other airlines have also already committed to ending the practice of shipping primates (some may still ship other animals for research), including United Airlines, Continental Airlines, Air Canada, Air China, China Eastern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Cathay Pacific, American Airlines, Lufthansa, British Airways, Vietnam Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic.

Airlines that have yet to ban the transport of primates include Air France, China Southern Airlines, and Philippine Airlines. Unfortunately, Air India banned the practice in August 2012 only to rescind the decision in October after pressure from researchers. Air France and China Southern Airlines transport primates to the U.S.  

During flights, primates endure delays, poor ventilation, noise, and dangerous temperature fluctuations on their extremely long journeys. The anxiety and stress they suffer can lead to increased susceptibility to infection. Documents obtained by BUAV provide a disturbing insight into how these animals suffer.

The following reported incidences illustrate the pain and suffering endured by the primates: 

• "On uncrating, he was found in moribund condition. Part of the wooden crate had been chewed away and no food was present in the crate. The primate died while IV fluids were being administered."
   
• "One animal died during transport from Vietnam. The animal was removed in Paris at the airport; the cause of death was reportedly from … [the build-up of gas in the intestinal tract]"
   
• "One animal imported from Mauritius was dead on arrival."
   
• Conditions that resulted in the death or euthanasia of primates (during the quarantine period) imported into the U.S. during 2009 included pneumonia, enteritis, gastroenteritis, dehydration, weight loss, poor body condition, and infection.

NEAVS calls on supporters to contact airlines listed below to request they cease involvement in primate transport and implement an immediate ban on the transportation of primates for research.

Suggested letter text:

I am shocked to learn that your airline has, is or would be involved in the international transportation of primates to laboratories. It is inhumane and unacceptable that living animals are packed into small crates and shipped like cargo only to end up in laboratories where they will suffer or die in experiments.

I urge you to join the increasing number of airlines that have stopped their involvement in this money-making cruelty and instead refuse to be a part of the trade in living animals for profit and research. Until you do, I will not be flying with your airline.

Sincerely,

Your name

__________________

Send to:

Air France
Email: mail.customerservice.cdg@airfrance.fr

Air India
Email: call.bom@airindia.in

China Southern Airlines
Email: csnib@csair.com

Philippine Airlines
Email: corpcomms@pal.com.ph

NEAVS thanks you for your ongoing support to end animal cruelty in research.

In 2010 and 2011, a similar bill passed the House but died in the Senate. Last year, an identical bill was approved by all House committees, but was unfortunately never called for a vote in the full House. Previously, the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education (CABE) was the main opponent to the bill, citing concerns about paperwork and cost that were without merit. However, CABE will reportedly not testify against the bill this year.

With your support, 2013 could be the year Connecticut students are finally given the right to choose dissection alternatives and join students in other states whose rights to conscience and compassion are already protected.

How to Take Action:

Please take a minute to let your legislators know you support a student’s right to dissection alternatives and encourage them to pass HB 6329: An Act Concerning Dissection Choice. For contact information, enter your address here.

TALKING POINTS FOR YOUR CALL/EMAIL:

• Please support HB 6329: An Act Concerning Dissection Choice. Already, 15 states plus Washington D.C. have passed dissection choice laws or policies, including all of Connecticut’s neighbors.
   
• Traditional specimen dissection wreaks havoc on the environment and poses health risks to students and the public due to the use and disposal of carcinogenic preservatives like formaldehyde.
   
• Because many frogs cannot be bred and are taken from the wild, specimen use contributes to endangered amphibian population decimation. Furthermore, it involves an industry that has been shown to be cruel and without concern for the suffering it causes living animals destined to be killed and prepared as specimens.
   
• Some students are discouraged from pursuing science careers because they do not want to dissect, eliminating future important contributors to scientific progress. Studies show students who use alternatives learn as well as, or better than, students who followed traditional dissection curriculum. Over 90% of medical schools have eliminated animal-based teaching methods, validating that traditional dissection in grades K-12 is outdated and unnecessary.
   
• Annual specimen purchases by schools waste limited education dollars while non-animal alternatives are a one-time cost (free loan libraries are available for schools to try computer programs before purchasing). Furthermore, the programs boost computer literacy.
   
• The National Science Teachers Association and the National Association of Biology Teachers support dissection alternatives. Please help Connecticut progress scientifically and ethically by supporting HB 6329!

For more information, visit our Animals in Education and Student Choice Laws and Policies pages.

NEAVS fully supports nearly all the CoC recommendations and appreciates NIH director Dr. Francis Collins’ commitment to chimpanzees. However, we see no reason, scientifically or ethically, to accept the recommendation to hold 50 chimpanzees for “future potential research.” Please tell NIH you want all the other recommendations accepted and all chimpanzees retired.

Before deciding how it will implement the recommendations, the NIH will review public comments. We urge you to share your concern for chimpanzees in research and your dedication to getting them all out (read NEAVS' comments in full). Please follow the instructions below to give your input to NIH – deadline March 23.

Step 1: Visit the Request for Information website.

Step 2: Fill in your name and email.

Step 3: Scroll to the bottom. In the box titled “Overall Comments,” please use the following talking points to write short comments.

Thank NIH director Dr. Francis Collins for his vision and commitment to providing humane and better care to chimpanzees. Thank him for acknowledging and honoring the NIH’s commitment to their lifetime care.

Ask Dr. Collins to use his authority to transfer dollars for the housing and care of chimpanzees in laboratories to those same chimpanzees’ housing and care in sanctuary.

If the chimpanzees remained in labs, NIH would continue to support them. Those same funds will be better spent in sanctuary. Appeal to Dr. Collins to transfer federal dollars to sanctuary care, now!

Assert that a reserve population of chimpanzees is unnecessary, as past and present science disproves any need for chimpanzees in research. Refer to scientists at an Institute of Medicine hearing who testified chimpanzees have no future value in research. Wholeheartedly recommend all federally owned chimpanzees be transferred to sanctuary.

Nearly 1,000 chimpanzees are living in research laboratories in the United States. Some have been confined in labs for up to 50 years. At any given time, the vast majority are not involved in active research protocols—instead they are languishing, warehoused at taxpayers’ expense. According to the National Institutes of Health, the cost to U.S. taxpayers for chimpanzee research and maintenance is more than $60 million per year. The entire European Union, along with Australia, Japan, and New Zealand, have already banned or severely restricted the use of chimpanzees in invasive research. The United States is the only remaining developed nation in the world still using chimpanzees in invasive research.

The Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act would give chimpanzees—our closest living relatives in the animal kingdom—a humane retirement, while freeing up taxpayer money that should be spent more wisely. For a single chimpanzee, lifetime care in a research facility can cost over $1 million, compared with $340,000 for superior care in a sanctuary. Ending invasive research will mean a savings of more than $20 million per year for the American people.

Highly endangered, with only an estimated 16,000 remaining in the wild, some 10,000-13,000 of them are kept in metal cages forced to remain in a prone position – unable to even stand or move – to have bile crudely and painfully extracted from their gall bladders through either implanted steel catheters or free-dripping holes in their abdomens.

Bile extraction is daily agony for the bears, who can survive for up to 20 years in these coffin-like crush cages. They develop stereotypic behavior, banging their heads repeatedly against the bars, gnawing them until their teeth are broken, and even growing into the cage bars. Many are missing limbs or paws due to the trauma or the snares used to capture them.

Groups like the Animals Asia Foundation (AAF) are working effectively throughout Asia to end bile farming. They have rescued and provided sanctuary for around 400 moon bears, and shut down more than 43 bile farms for good. AAF’s China sanctuary includes a bear enclosure funded entirely by NEAVS. Then in 2011, NEAVS adopted Shima, a moon bear rescued by Animals Asia, and is committed to providing for her lifetime care.

Over 50 herbal and synthetic alternatives to bear bile are readily available. As public awareness grows, there has been growing clamor from the people of China to end this cruel practice. In fact, according to AAF, “20 of China's 31 provinces have become proudly bear farm-free.”

But now there's a possible setback to this progress: In 2012, one of the largest bear bile farms in China, the Gui Zhen Tang Pharmaceutical Company, announced plans to expand their farming operation and is seeking approval from the Fujian Securities Regulatory Committee to publicly list their business in the stock exchange. The investment money generated by the listing would allow the company to increase production by adding over 700 more moon bears.

The company's plans have led to an outpouring of public opposition within China.

An online petition to end bear farming generated over 92,000 signatures from Chinese citizens within a week!

As of April, 2013 the company had suspended its plans.

NEAVS considers bile farms for the sake of human “medicinal use” a form of vivisection that must end. While  much of traditional Eastern medicine – for example the use of replenishable herbs – is compatible with our  mission to end the use of animals, we draw a line when it involves ancient practices that cause suffering or the demise of animals (e.g., the use of animal parts from bears, tigers, and rhinoceroses).

Help us show our solidarity with the nearly 100,000 Chinese signatories who are speaking out against this outdated and cruel practice.

Contact Ambassador Cui Tiankai at the U.S. Chinese Embassy. Thank him for the work of the people of China to end bear farming in their country and ask him for his strong support of these efforts.
 

Chinese Embassy Chancery
Ambassador Cui Tiankai
3505 International Place, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008

Email: chinaembpress_us@mfa.gov.cn

Dear Supporter,

While citizens and organizations are working hard in China and other countries to end bile farming, we need to do our part in the U.S., Europe, and other “consumer” countries where a market for traditional Eastern medicines also exists.

Some formulas may contain cruelly obtained animal parts or derivatives, some illegally so from endangered species banned from commerce. Please take a moment to become an educated consumer who can Recognize, Reject, and Report any products that contain illegal species ingredients. Then go a step further and reject all formulas that include any animal ingredients – endangered species or not.

If you practice alternative medicine, spread the word to your colleagues. If you are treated by an alternative health practitioner, bring one of our free 3 R's posters with you to your next appointment.

Let's not let ignorance of this issue make anyone an accidental contributor to the suffering!
Sincerely,

Theodora Capaldo, EdD
President, NEAVS

To learn more, visit Animals Asia.