In the following announcement in the Los Angeles Times, 24 April 1991:
USA Doctors speak out against vivisection

Physicians, Scientists, and other Health professionals
Reject animal experimentation

An Open Letter to the American People

We represent thousands of concerned health professionals who oppose animal experimentation (vivisection).
We'd like you to know why.

False Promises, False Claims

The biomedical research industry's claim that our health and survival depend on vivisection is patently false. Animal experiments fail to address the true causes of human disease. Our illnesses are a result of numerous factors - lifestyle, environmental toxins, genetics, poverty, etc - which cannot be recreated in animals. In fact, information derived from animals is misleading and often dangerous when applied to humans.

Historically, clinical practice with astute deductive reasoning has resulted in the major health improvements. The discovery of penicillin and digitalis, the development of x-rays, the microscope, and hygienic principles for infection control are just a few of the examples that owe nothing to animal experimentation. To justify its consumption of public health resources, the vivisection industry credits itself with important developments, but in reality:

• The practice of open heart surgery was delayed by at least ten years by misleading dog experiments.
• Scientific studies have shown that modern improvements in longevity are due not to animal-tested medicines, but to better sanitation, nutrition, and other living conditions.

"Work on (polio) prevention was delayed by an erroneous conception of the nature of human disease based on misleading experimental models of the disease in monkeys."
- Dr Albert Sabin

No Miracle Cures

People and animals alike suffer from the futility of vivisection:

• Heart disease is still the number one cause of death. Yet recent human patient studies prove that it is preventable and reversible through lifestyle changes, including diet.
• Animal research has failed to stem a four-fold increase in birth defects over the last forty years. Easter Seals now funds only non-animal studies.
• While three animals die every second in U.S. laboratories, one in three Americans can expect to contract cancer in their lifetimes.

"It is impossible to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion in regard to cancer in man by experimenting on animals."
- Robert Bell, M.D., Vice President, International Cancer Research Society.

Vivisection Squanders Scarce Health Care Dollars

The U.S. spends $600 billion per year (12% of our GNP) on illness treatment - more than any other country in the world. Yet our health care system is in shambles.

The U.S. has a higher infant mortality rate than 22 other developed nations. Tens of millions of Americans have no access to health care. Trauma, mental health and drug rehab centers are closing for lack of funds. Efforts to rid the environment of disease-causing toxins are severely underfunded.

Vivisection is Unspeakably Cruel

Behind the locked doors of thousands of institutions, atrocities are inflicted on frightened animal subjects. They have no rights, no voice or representation, and no way of escape.

Breeding farms, public pounds, and stolen pet dealers provide an endless supply of innocent victims. For example, millions of animals a year die painfully for useless product testing just to provide liability protection for manufacturers.

"I can find no evidence that the Draize Test, LD50 Test, or any other tests using animals to support the 'safety' of chemicals and cosmetics, have any relevance to the human species..."
- Donald C. Doll, M.D., Columbia, MO

Vivisection is Big Business

Biomedical "research" is a vast, lucrative industry, supported each year by $15 billion in taxes and charity... while killing 65 to 100 million animals. Animal experimenters guard a privileged status with an enormous financial network of charities, and control the Federal agencies for health science funding. This multi-billion dollar industry is self-perpetuating, self-monitoring and self-congratulating. Meanwhile our healthcare system is self-destructing.

All our energies and resources must be committed to productive endeavors such as preventive medicine and research methodologies which relate directly to human beings including ethical human-based research, human tissue testing, and population studies (epidemiology). It is time to embrace ways of living and learning that are self-sustaining, non-polluting, and respectful of all life. Only then will our health-care goals be realized.

"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."
- Dr Charles Mayo, Co-Founder, Mayo Clinic, New York Daily News, March 13, 1961.

"The real choice is not between dogs and children, it is between good science and bad science; between methods that directly relate to humans and those that do not."
- Robert Sharpe, Ph.D, The Cruel Deception, 1988.

Signed

• Kenneth P. Stoller, M.D., Pediatrics
• J. Leichtberg, M.D.
• Kathleen Waddell, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist
• Paula Kislak, D.V.M.
• Sam Snyder, Ph.D., M.P.H.
• Jonathan Lemler, D.C.
• Kathy MacLeay, Ph.D.
• Lorin Lindner, Ph.D., M.P.H.
• L.J. Marx, M.D., Psychiatry
• Susan Stewart, R.N.
• Elliot Katz, D.V.M.
• Richard S. Benedon, M.D., F.A.C.E.P., Emergency Medicine
• Julie Fernee, R.N.
• Donald E. Doyle, M.D., F.A.C.S., Otolaryngology & Facial Plastic Surgery
• Joan Priestley, M.D., General Medicine
• Cheryl Anne Reller, R.N.
• A. Yvonne Miles, M.S.N., C.C.R.N.
• Joseph Nielands, Ph.D., Biochemistry
• Harry J. Silver, M.D.
• Les Stewart, D.D.S.
• Charles Kuell, Ph.D., Family Counselling
• Richard S. Blinstrub, M.D., Dermatology
• Nedim C. Buyukmihci, V.M.D.
• Michael Klaper, M.D., General Medicine

Kenneth P. Stoller, M.D., Pediatrics, with Madeline Hassin and companion, Shep.
(Photo: Robert Ferrone)

(Ack: K. Ungar and S. Stewart, USA)