Programs & Campaigns

A Voice for All Animals

September 7, 2004

Long Island Press
Morey Publishing, Inc.
1103 Stewart Avenue
Garden City, NY 11530

Dear Editor:

Thank you for "The Golden Rules: Teaching Kids Humane Education" by Alicyn Leigh.

New York students are fortunate to have Section 809, a law that requires instruction of humane treatment and protection of animals. Developing sensitivity and fostering compassionate behavior are priceless lessons with rippling effects on society as a whole.

New York students also have a leg-up because state law allows alternatives to animal dissection without academic penalty. Sadly, thousands of compassionate students will continue to face coercion, failed grades and lose their interest in science until their states pass similar dissection choice laws.

To further efforts to teach science in humane and constructive ways, the New England Anti-Vivisection Society (NEAVS) and the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI) have developed a unique approach to developing critical thinking about the use of animals in science. Through a variety of interactive activities, "Next of Kin: An Interdisciplinary Science Curriculum" introduces students to our genetic next-of-kin the chimpanzee and the challenges they face as an endangered species and favored research "tool." Through the chimpanzee, students learn about how science and sensitivity to all species can go hand-in-hand.

As students and teachers return to school this month, we hope that humane science classrooms that cultivate inquisitive and compassionate young scientists will take the future of science in a new, evolved and infinitely more productive path - one where all species and our interrelationship with them really matters.

Sincerely,

Theodora Capaldo, Ed.D.
President
New England Anti-Vivisection Society
and its education affiliate
the Ethical Science and Education Coalition