Programs & Campaigns

NEAVS Supporters Speak Out

Letter from Beverly Rockhill, PhD to
Mr. Richard Cravatts, Publisher

Dear Mr. Cravatts,

I read with disappointment of the Boston Classical Network’s decision to remove the NEAVS’ (New England Anti-Vivisection Society’s) ads from the ART’s program book.

My husband and I attended several performances at the ART recently, and I noted with approval the NEAVS’ ads. I saw these ads as a statement about the theater’s willingness to present unpopular statements to the public.

Is not this presentation of unpopular ideas one of the most important roles of good art? It is ironic that an organization, such as yours, that is associated with the theater should choose to censor an ad simply because it is offensive to some Harvard faculty. What is the meaning of "Veritas"? The theater, historically, has often been one of the first victims of censorship, and thus I find your decision particularly grievous and ominous.

I was a junior faculty member at Harvard Medical School until recently; I am now on the faculty at the University of North Carolina as a cancer researcher. Through observational studies of humans, scientists have learned much about preventing many cancers (and other types of chronic disease) in our population. A good deal of the animal medical research that goes on, besides being intrinsically cruel and wasteful, is likely a diversion from, and thus a hindrance to, real progress in disease prevention. To take but a simple example, the sacrifice of many animals to the study of lung cancer while our society’s leaders have let the tobacco companies ply their wares to the vulnerable is worse than inefficient. It is unethical from both a human and animal rights perspective. NEAVS is one of the few organizations to point out such truths, as well as the existence of real alternatives to the overwhelming numbers of animal experiments.

George Bernard Shaw, one of the founding fathers of modern theater, wrote that "Atrocities are not less atrocities when they occur in laboratories and are called medical research." He also wrote that "Custom will reconcile people to any atrocity." What a shame that your organization may be the latest to be reconciled to the atrocities that NEAVS works to end.

Sincerely,

Beverly Rockhill, PhD

More letters: Paul Waldau, D.Phil, J.D., M.A. | Tovis Page, PhD3

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