MDA Telethon Host's Retirement Prompts Plea for Charity to Stop Wasting Money on Cruel and Outdated Animal Experiments
Immediate Release:
June 6, 2011
Contact:
Robbyn Brooks 202-483-7382
Tucson, Ariz. — In the wake of Jerry Lewis' announcement that he will no longer host the Tucson-based Muscular Dystrophy Association's (MDA) annual telethon, PETA has sent a letter to the head of the MDA, urging him to modernize the organization in a far more important way than finding new hosts: Stop funding cruel and irresponsible experiments on dogs, mice, and other animals. In the letter, PETA points out that in the 45 years since Lewis hosted his first MDA telethon, science and society have advanced to the point where cruel animal experiments—which have not yielded a cure for muscular dystrophy—have been shown to be ineffective and are widely opposed by the public.
"When Jerry Lewis began hosting the MDA's telethon, we didn't have cell phones, personal computers, iPads, or even fax machines—so it should come as no surprise that medical research has also progressed," says PETA Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. "It's past time for the MDA to do away with animal experimentation—which has produced nothing but decades of suffering and failure—and to support modern, ethical, and effective in vitro and clinical research methods that have a hope of finding a cure."
The MDA has spent decades and millions of dollars supporting cruel and deadly experiments on animals. It recently announced that it would be spending another $370,000 for inhumane experiments on dogs and mice who have been intentionally bred to have a debilitating and progressive muscle disorder. The MDA continues to squander money on animal tests even though researchers have noted that critical genetic and physiological differences between species make animals poor models for muscular dystrophy and Lou Gehrig's disease in humans. In some cases, treatments developed in animals have even made humans' symptoms worse.
Nearly half of the public is now opposed to animal experimentation, and polls show that most people prefer to donate money to health charities that do not fund animal experiments.
For more information, please visit PETA.org or click here.