Give and Let Live

On our other blog, we just took part in Livestrong Day sponsored by the Lance Armstrong Foundation and are going pink for October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  If you love animals like I do, then this can put you in a quandary - so many of our loved ones have had or have cancer but did you know so many organizations still test inhumanely on animals for research?

Many people don’t realise that much of the money they give to medical research charities will be used to fund animal experiments. Apart from captivity and the suffering, animal experiments often give misleading results that cannot be extrapolated to the human condition. Even different strains of the same animal species can give a different reaction to drugs and different experimental results. Investment in humane non-animal based research may therefore be the best use of resources and lead to faster medical progress. 

According to many scientists, the best hope for the prevention or cure of many diseases is relevant and progressive nonanimal research methods, such as in vitro cell and tissue cultures, microfluidic circuits, computer modeling, microdosing, and epidemiological studies. This knowledge, as well as ethical considerations for animals, has led many people to be concerned about the continued use of ineffective and outdated animal methods in medical research. They prefer to support charities and corporations that sponsor more responsible and humane alternatives.

One web site I found, The Council on Humane Giving, offers an ever expanding directory of charities that fund only humane, human-based research or patient services, as well as a list of corporations that have pledged to support such charities. Your support of Humane Seal-certified organizations allows you to Give and Let Live. Check out their breast cancer listings for organizations that use non-animal research.