Event Announcement: AHA Heart Walk (September 24, 2005)

[Guest guest]

2007 American Heart Association Heart Walk

Informational Demonstration and Leafleting

 

Event:  Dallas American

Heart Association Heart Walk Demonstration

 

Sponsors:  Our

informational demonstration is sponsored by North Texas Animal Rights Network

(NTARN), Vegetarian Network of Dallas (VegNod), and Animal Connection of Texas

(ACT). Heart Walk demonstration event planning is coordinated by NTARN founder Dr.

John Pippin.  

 

Date:  Saturday, September 15, 2007. Please put this on your calendars now!!!

 

Time:  Leafleters 7:30-8:00 AM. Opening ceremonies 8:30 AM. Walk begins 9:00 AM.

 

New Location:  Victory Park (2500 Victory

Avenue). This is at the SW corner of

the American Airlines Center. Much easier to get to than the previous Heart Walk

location. Parking is on-street and in the Platinum Garage (free) on Houston St.

 

 

Need directions? Click here for a map

 

Purpose:  Educate

the public, local corporate sponsors, and AHA officials and volunteers about

the scientifically flawed and ethically unjustifiable practice of animal

research in medicine. We will use signs, leaflets, and friendly interactions to

get the message out.

 

Background:  AHA

spends more than 20% of its $700 million annual revenues, plus more than $16

million from foundations, for heart and stroke research – mostly animal

research. Yet every one of more than 150 stroke treatments successful in

animals has FAILED in human trials, and there are no reliable animal

“models” for heart disease or stroke. See our position statement

below, and read the 2006 AHA Annual Report:

 

http://www.americanheart.org/downloadable/heart/1165958761497AHA%20AR%202006_FINAL.pdf

 

 

Contact Information: 

For questions contact Dr. Pippin at 972-407-9396 or jjpippin. Event day

contacts are Dr. Pippin (cell: 972-523-4404) and Margaret Morin (cell:

972-571-9603).

 

 

Wear a red T-shirt. I will have plenty of extras.

 

The AHA has million$. The animals have us.

 

 

(See

next page for our position statement)

Position Statement

on American Heart Association-Funded

Animal Research: Real

Harm to Real People

 

The mission of the

American Heart Association (AHA) is “to reduce disability and death from

cardiovascular diseases and stroke.” This is a laudable mission, which is

supported wholeheartedly by north Texas animal rights and animal

welfare organizations. Many of us work or volunteer in ways that contribute to

the AHA’s mission.

 

But we actively oppose

the continued wasteful expenditure of donated funds for animal research, which

contributes very little toward achievement of the AHA’s mission and

drains critical funds that could be saving lives. Animal testing has in recent

years become increasingly discredited in all areas of medical research, including

heart and blood vessel disease research. Yet the AHA continues to fund animal

research, using millions of dollars annually that could be applied to human

studies, non-animal research methods, and other proven measures to decrease

disability and death from cardiovascular diseases.

 

Ø

AHA revenues were $700 million in the last year

reported (July 1, 2005-June 30, 2006)

 

Ø

More than $145 million was spent on medical

research (>21% of total expenditures), and  $16+ million more was spent by AHA’s

research partners (including Big Pharma)

 

Ø

Two-thirds of AHA’s research funding and much

of its supplemental funding (>$100 million combined annually) is for basic

science research, mostly animal research.

 

Animal research can not

be translated to human medicine because non-human animals have very different

anatomy, physiology and genetics compared to humans. More than 90% of drugs

that are successful in animal tests fail human trials and are never approved,

yet many valuable or lifesaving human drugs failed animal testing. Every one of more than 150 successful

animal stroke treatments tested in people has failed, and there are no reliable

animal “models” for heart disease and stroke.

 

Entire

fields of research have come up empty in human trials after

successful animal experiments: stroke, diabetes, cancer immunology, head

trauma, paralysis, Alzheimer’s, vascular stents, cardiac shock, xenotransplantation,

and others. Every successful

animal vaccine for HIV/AIDS, cancer treatment, and multiple sclerosis has

failed in people. Many other useful treatments were impeded and delayed by

misleading animal experiments.

 

There are excellent

alternatives to animal research, and additional funding would produce many

more. Examples include computer models and databases, several methods of human

cell and tissue research, tissue engineering and microfluidics (“human on

a chip”), advanced imaging methods, microdose human drug trials, stem

cell research, and genetic testing methods (genomics). Epidemiology research is

largely ignored, yet has made the successful treatment or prevention of

hypertension, high cholesterol, heart attacks, strokes, cancers and many other

diseases possible when animal research failed to do so.

 

Some

examples of animal experiments funded by the AHA are on the next page

Examples of Animal

Research Funded

by the American

Heart Association

 

***   Notorious forced

smoking experiments in dogs and monkeys, which showed no ill

         effects and

allowed continued advertising of smoking (even aimed at young people)

 

***   Glass particles

injected into dogs’ hearts (5 times over nine weeks) to produce heart

         failure; they

were observed for nine months, then killed to examine their hearts

 

***   Dogs’ chests

cut open to attach electrodes to their hearts, in order to monitor  responses

to exercise and drug injections

 

***   Pigs’ chests

cut open, and blood flow to the heart blocked for an hour; they were then

killed to evaluate the effects upon the heart

 

***   Goats had

electrodes attached in several places, blood vessels were tied off, and they

received repeated electrical shocks to observe the effects upon blood flow

 

***   Dogs’ hearts

were shocked continually for 30 minutes, to observe the effects of the blood

clots produced inside the heart by these shocks

 

***   Dogs’

coronary arteries were clamped off every two minutes for eight hours a day over

three weeks, to examine the effects of many small heart attacks

 

***   Dogs’

coronary arteries were tied off, and radioactive tracers were injected to see

if the damaged areas could be detected; the dogs’ hearts were then sliced

and examined

 

Remember: Animal Research

Kills People, Not Just Animals

 

 

 

 

 

 

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