Event Announcement: AHA Heart Walk (September 13, 2008)

[Guest guest]

Yikes! The AHA Heart Walk has snuck up on me -- it is

Saturday, September 13. Please come out to spread the word as we do each year,

and please cross-post to all your lists. Thanks. JJP

 

 

 

2008 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 13, 2008.  

 

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

 

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 area garages.  

 

Event information and map to Victory

Park:  http://tinyurl.com/6ql94s

 

 

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 $800 million annual revenues, plus many more millions

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.

 

AHA 2007 Annual Report: See

pages 19-20 for financial information. Nineteen major drug companies,

themselves heavily invested in animal testing of drugs, are leading donors (>

$100,000), and eight of these have donated more than $1 million in 2007.

 

http://www.americanheart.org/downloadable/heart/1197384331105AHA%202007%20AR-SINGLE.pdf

 

 

Contact Information: 

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

contact number is 972-523-4404.

 

 

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

 

The AHA has million$. The animals have us.

 

Position Statement

on American Heart Association-Funded

Animal Research: Real

Harm to Real People

 

The newly stated mission

of the American Heart Association (AHA) is: “Building healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases

and stroke.” This is a laudable mission, which is supported

wholeheartedly by north Texas animal rights and animal protection

organizations. Many of us work or volunteer in ways that contribute to the AHA’s

mission, and we are just as hopeful for advances as AHA is.

 

But we actively oppose

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

inhumane, contributes very little toward achievement of the AHA’s mission,

and drains critical funds that could be saving lives. Animal experimentation has

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 tens of millions of dollars annually that could be applied to

human studies, nonanimal research methods, and other measures to decrease

disability and death from cardiovascular diseases.

 

Ø

AHA revenues were $800 million in the last year

reported (July 1, 2006-June 30, 2007)

 

Ø

More than $150 million was spent on medical

research (>21% of total expenditures), and millions 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.

 

 

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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