Image by Andreas Lischka from Pixabay

1. Sign the no animal labs at the new St. Paul’s hospital petition

Every year, millions of animals in Canada experience excruciating pain and die in the name of research that does not reliably predict human outcomes. Live animals are used for burn research, psychological and physical pain research, given cancer, blinded, subjected to broken bones or strokes, swim tests in icy water, forced to inhale smoke and more. All when alternative ways of conducting research exist and it has been shown time and time again that, in research, animal models produce misleading results. Animal physiology is different to human physiology. For example, 96% of drugs that have tested successfully in animals have failed in human clinical trials.
HELP US TO END ANIMAL RESEARCH: PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION CALLING FOR NO ANIMAL LABS AT THE NEW ST. PAUL’S HOSPITAL IN VANCOUVER...

2. Send a letter asking the Canadian Government to make good on the promise to ban cosmetic testing on animals.

Please encourage your MP to ensure swift action on the long-awaited Cosmetics Testing Ban that is now before Parliament. Send a letter to let Ottawa know that you are in favour of the ban and that you expect the election promise the government made to ban cosmetic testing on animals to be fulfilled.

You can find your local MP and their contact information by clicking the button below:

Sample text for the letter:

In the last Canadian federal election, a promise was made to put a stop to animal testing by the cosmetic industry. I am writing to ask you to take swift action on the long-awaited Cosmetics Testing ban that is now before Parliament.

According to the Animal Alliance of Canada, other countries are more progressive. Since 2009, animal testing for cosmetics has been banned in the 27 member countries of the European Union. As well, the sale of cosmetic products or ingredients subject to new animal testing after March 2013 is illegal. Israel has similar bans. Other countries such as India and South Korea are considering similar policies.

Hundreds of companies including LUSH, JASON, and Kiss My Face do not use animal testing and yet continue to produce new and safe beauty products. They are able to do so by utilizing the nearly 20,000 widely available raw ingredients that have already been tested in the past, instead of attempting to use new chemicals in need of testing.

When one weighs the suffering animals endure for the sake of testing new ingredients against the outcome – making us feel more beautiful, animal testing for cosmetics stands out as exceptionally cruel.

3. Tell SFU to come clean about its animal research

Simon Fraser University refuses to release data on its animal use numbers or any details about its animal experimentation. British Columbia’s second largest university steadfastly ignores requests for information on how many animals are used in its teaching or experimentation protocols each year, what species are being used and the severity of pain or degree of invasiveness.  They won’t say where the animals come from, won’t say what they are doing to them, nor will they provide any information on the most recent inspection reports.

What are they hiding?

4. Help end cruelty to piglets used in military medical training

Whereas:

• Young pigs are poisoned with chemical weapons, irradiated, stabbed, dismembered, disemboweled and killed for Canadian military trauma training;
• The Department of National Defence (DND) continues to use pigs despite acknowledging that they are poor models for human anatomy and may actually interfere with effective training;
• The continued use of piglets for military trauma training puts Canadian soldiers’ lives at risk by using obsolete teaching methods and inapplicable animal models;
• Twenty-three of 30 NATO member nations no longer use animals for military trauma training;
• In the past 10 years, the DND spent over $1 million in tax-payer funds by purchasing pigs for military trauma training; and
• Human patient simulators which accurately mimic human anatomy and physiology are more applicable and cost-effective training tools for military trauma training.

We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Minister of National Defence to bring an end to the use of animals in military trauma training and replace them with more advanced, human-relevant and less expensive human patient simulators.

5. Stop the funding of cruel & outdated burn research on animals

The BC Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund directly funds burn research on live rabbits and mice in its Wound Healing Research Laboratory led by Dr. Aziz Ghahary.

The BC Fire Fighters have been exposed for cruel animal research before. In the 1990s, animal advocacy organization Lifeforce exposed BC Fire Fighters for funding research which involved burning rats with boiling water. As a result, the BC Fire Fighters promised to pull funding for animal research. However, with the establishment of Dr. Ghahary’s lab in 2005, research on animals has resumed...

6. Only donate to medical charities that do NOT do research on animals.

Visit our Humane Charities site to see a list of medical charities that do and do not use animal models. Direct your dollars to those that don’t and if asked for a donation by those that do, let them know why you are not donating. Click the image below to go to the site:

7. Educate yourself about the environmental impacts of animal testing

The Progressive Non-Animal Research Society (PNARS) has a report coming out about the environmental impact of animal research which ties in well with Earth Day. Use the button below to see the executive summary and to visit the page where the full report will be published.

8. Blow the whistle: have you witnessed cruelty in an animal laboratory?

Email whistleblower@adavsociety.org if you have.