In the few short years since PETA began its campaign to convince health charities to stop funding animal experiments, a whopping 221 charities have pledged never to fund cruel, irrelevant animal tests! There are still many other charities that continue to fund animal experiments, but activism has made such a huge difference. We need your help to get even the most stubborn ones to go cruelty-free!

The Times, They Are a-Changin'
When I founded PETA more than 20 years ago, there were only about three companies offering cruelty-free shampoo and cosmetics. One was foreign and its products were almost impossible to find, one was by mail order only, and the third was a “bring your own container” store. A few years later, PETA’s Caring Consumer Campaign was launched. First, we convinced companies to come clean and stop telling consumers that they “had to” test on animals by law. Then we went undercover into the labs and showed that pain was the hidden ingredient in personal care products and makeup. Finally, we took to the streets, cementing our feet into huge blocks outside testing facilities, scaling the flagpole at Gillette’s offices, crashing corporate events and distributing “Avon Killing!” doorhangers to half a million homes. When we persuaded Benetton, Avon and Revlon to stop testing their products on animals, it started a domino effect: More and more companies went cruelty-free. Today, there are more than 550, and a huge segment of the animal-testing industry is gone forever!

You Must Have a Target if You Want to Score
These campaigns work because they are the soft underbelly of vivisection, allowing people to see that if cosmetics tests on animals aren’t necessary, perhaps other animal tests aren’t, either. Few people will ever see inside a laboratory or be able to influence the government to cut off the research welfare tap.

This is why PETA is targeting the March of Dimes’ inhumane, scientifically useless experiments on dogs, rats, monkeys, rabbits, sheep, opossums and other animals. We hope that this campaign will be the thin edge of the wedge, calling attention to all charities that fund painful animal experiments, draining money from effective projects that could really save lives. It’s outrageous that charities such as the American Cancer Society, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the British Heart Foundation use donations from well-intentioned people—people who want to stop suffering, not cause it—to hurt animals.

You Do Have a Choice
Just as with cruelty-free cosmetics and household product companies, consumers have a choice when it comes to deciding which charities to support, and exercising that choice—and making sure that the charity knows why it didn’t get your donation—is a cornerstone of the campaign. Caring donors can feel confident giving to Easter Seals, the United Cancer Research Society, the AIDS Network of Edmonton Society and The Garland Appeal. These organizations focus on prevention, patient services and modern research methods such as human clinical trials and in vitro tests. Unlike the March of Dimes, they do not conduct any animal tests.

You Can Help

Give only to cruelty-free charities! • PETA’s charity guide, featuring Oscar-winning actor and animal-testing opponent Dame Judi Dench, lists charities that do and that don't fund experiments on animals. Visit StopAnimalTests.com or call 1-866-TEST-KIND to order your free copy. Be sure to tell the charities on the “bad” list why you won’t donate to them. • Tell the March of Dimes that you only donate to cruelty-free health charities, such as Birth Defect Research for Children and the Heimlich Foundation. Write: Jennifer Howse, President March of Dimes 1275 Mamaroneck Ave. White Plains, NY 10605 Tel.: 1-888-MODIMES (663-4637) Fax: 914-428-8203 E-Mail: Jhowse@modimes.org • Adopt a local March of Dimes office to campaign against. To plan a demonstration at your local March of Dimes office, contact PETA’s Campaigns Department at 757-622-7382, or via e-mail at campaigns@peta.org. See MarchOfCrimes.com for more ways that you can help animals.

Actor and advocate for animals and children Sally Struthers has recorded PETA’s charity hotline urging donors to give to progressive, humane health charities. Call 1-866-TEST-KIND to hear it. Photo: © Getty Images

British Heartless Foundation

A PETA member dressed as a beagle stood atop Eros in Piccadilly Circus on Valentine's Day to protest experiments funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF). Experimenters have skinned the back legs of cats and injected them with sodium cyanide to test their muscle reflexes and cut open dogs’ chests and circulated their blood out of their bodies and then back in again to alter their blood pressure. Ask the British Heart Foundation to stop funding animal experiments. Mr. Leslie Busk, Director General British Heart Foundation 14 Fitzhardinge St. London W1H 4DH UK