February 25, 1999
The Honorable Albert Gore, Jr.
Vice President of the United States
The White House
Washington, DC 20502
1 page via fax: 202-456-7044
Dear Vice President Gore,
On behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, I appeal to you to save the lives of the countless animals who will be tortured and killed in the high production volume (HPV) chemical-testing program.
When you “fast-tracked” the HPV program last fall, perhaps you did not realize how fundamentally flawed it isboth in terms of science and common sense. With all due respect, do you really need to kill rabbits, ducks, fish, and guinea pigs to make sure turpentine and rat poison are unsafe?
Force-feeding toxins to animals and rubbing corrosive chemicals into their open wounds will not protect the publics safety. Furthermore, publically available data, including human exposure information, have made it clear for years tha many of the HPV-targeted chemicals are extremely dangerous. So dangerous, in fact, that they willc ause excruciatingly painful deaths for the animals used in the tests.
Such suffering and loss of life are especially appalling because such tests that do not use animals exist. These nonanimal alternatives are not only humane, they are faster, less expensive, and often better at predicting a chemicals actual hazard potential. Meanwhile, tests using animals can actually clear a chemical already known to be dangerous.
Fortunately, there is still time (albeit very little) to delay the HPV chemical-testing program, allowing for a proper review of all existing data and for the incorporation of nonanimal testing methods.
An official at the Environmental Protection Agency was recently quoted as saying, “Its a good time to be a lab owner and a bad time to be a lab rat.”
Mr. Gore, compassionate people everywhere are waiting for you to prove him wrong.
With kind regards,
Paul McCartney
