PETA's Second Letter to March Of Dimes

July 7, 2000

Jennifer Howse, Ph.D.
President
March of Dimes
1275 Mamaroneck Ave.
White Plains, NY 10605

Dear Dr. Howse:

I received the response from March of Dimes’ Director of Science Information, R.P. Leavitt, to my letter of June 9. There are several points in the letter that need to be addressed.

Again, PETA appreciates and admires your goal to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, and we understand and recognize that the MOD has many valuable programs that have the potential to save thousands of lives. However, your continued funding of experiments involving animals does not help babies; it hurts them. By funneling valuable funds away from research that actually has the potential to save lives—modern, effective, humane, human-based studies—MOD’s animal experimentation does more harm than good.

Leavitt states that virtually every major medical advance of the 20th century has resulted from research using animals, including medications for cancer. This claim is absolutely false, and it is not only the animal protection community that recognizes that. Noted cancer research scientist Irwin D.J. Bross, Ph.D., director of biostatistics at Roswell Park Memorial Institute in New York, states that, "Not a single new drug for the treatment of human cancer was first picked up by an animal model system … the results of animal model systems for drugs or other modalities have done nothing but confuse and mislead the cancer researchers who have tried to extrapolate from mice to man. Moreover, when they have been used to guide clinical research, they have sent investigators on one long and costly wild goose chase after another. Thus, scientifically speaking, the animal studies are a fraud." Former American Cancer Society President Dr. Marvin Pollard has also openly acknowledged the problems with animal studies: "My own belief is that we have relied too heavily on animal testing, and we believed it too strongly. Now, I think we are commencing to realize that what goes on in an animal may not necessarily be applicable to humans." Furthermore, Dr. Charles Mayo, founder of the Mayo Clinic, explains, "I abhor vivisection. It should at least be curbed. Better, it should be abolished. I know of no achievement through vivisection, no scientific discovery, that could not have been obtained without such barbarism and cruelty. The whole thing is evil."

Among Leavitt’s further support for your continued funding of animal experimentation is the development of the polio vaccine. This is very peculiar, because this vaccine was actually delayed for decades due to experiments on monkeys that led to a misunderstanding of the mechanism of polio infection. Dr. Albert Sabin, who developed the oral polio vaccine, cited in testimony at a congressional hearing this example of the dangers of animal-based research: "Paralytic polio could be dealt with only by preventing the irreversible destruction of the large number of motor nerve cells, and the work on prevention was delayed by an erroneous conception of the nature of the human disease based on misleading experimental models of the disease in monkeys."

Leavitt’s unquestioning support for animal experimentation is very far from being fact-based. This is most clearly evidenced in his statement, "…while human studies and other non-animal alternatives can provide important clues to the origins of diseases, they cannot tell us exactly how or why these conditions occur, or how to prevent or treat them. Finding answers to these vital questions still requires the use of laboratory animals." The reality is that animal experiments have never helped prevent a single human birth defect. And although letters from MOD imply otherwise, I challenge you to provide even one concrete example. It is very irresponsible for your organization to continue to funnel money into animal experiments that have never helped a single baby and away from non-animal studies that have proven themselves to be effective in helping babies with birth defects.

Again, PETA is eager to meet with you to discuss your current use of animals and to see what you can offer as a timeline to stop funding research that hurts, rather than heals. Please contact me at your earliest convenience. Thank you very much for your time and attention to this extremely important matter.

Respectfully yours,



Jay M. Kelly
MOD Campaign Coordinator