People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent out a letter in early February seeking to find activists willing to participate in a walk to protest the March of Dimes WalkAmerica. According to its press release,
We need you to help us convince the March of Dimes to stop funding cruel, worthless experiments on animals. . .
. . .
The March of Dimes relies on donations from individuals who are unaware that their contributions are being used to torture animals instead of helping babies. Their single largest fundraiser is WalkAmerica, walk-a-thons held in major U.S. city throughout April and May.
Your presence at the WalkAmerica event in your area is vital to educating the March of Dimes supporters about the charity’s choices when it comes to what to fund. It is critical that caring activists encourage WalkAmerica participants to designate their contributions to be used for only the best tests, i.e. for non-animal projects, like a Birth Defects Registry that could save countless babies’ lives.
I hate to break it to PETA, but a birth defects registry is not a “test.” All states currently have birth defect registries, though some of them are substandard and the March of Dimes has done excellent legislative work on improving the quality of the data they produce.
The PETA letter, by the way, was posted to AR-NEWS by Friends of Animals activist Phyllis Bedford who is organizing a protest March for Centennial Park. Bedford is recruiting for people because, “Some of us can’t go to Centennial Park due to a past CD.”
Source:
Letter. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, February 2003.