The Coalition for Consumer Information in Cosmetics (which I’ve written about before), is the company I use to determine most of my cruelty-free lists and the creator of the leaping bunny logo that promotes a single international Humane Cosmetics Standard. The CCIC is made up of eight member organizations. I was just checking out the member organizations to see what they were like, and I thought I’d write up summaries and post them in this blog so other people can see what they’re like as well. The first CCIC member organization is the American Anti-Vivisection Society.

The American Anti-Vivisection Society:

The American Anti-Vivisection Society is a “non-profit animal advocacy and educational organization that unequivocally opposes and works to end experimentation on animals, and opposes all forms of cruelty to animals. Founded in 1993, AAVS is the oldest organization in the United States devoted to ending the use of animals in research, testing, and education.” AAVS works with “students, grassroots groups, individuals, parents, educators, the media, and members of the scientific community to legally and effectively end the use of animals in science through education, advocacy, and the development of alternative methods to animal use.”

AAVS members can become active in AAVS campaigns, which are announced in AV Magazine, the AAVS bi-monthly newsletter Activate for Animals, and on the AAVS websites. AAVS is running several campaigns right now — one to end animal cloning, one to stop animal patents, one to grant money to researchers who come up with non-animal-using testing alternatives, one to offer a computer-simulated alternative to animal dissection in the classroom, one to ban the release of shelter animals to research facilities, and one to ban pet cloning.

It’s interesting. While I think the campaigns to grant money to researchers who come up with non-animal-using testing alternatives, and ban the release of shelter animals to research facilities are absolutely fantastic, and I think the campaigns to offer alternatives to dissection in schools, end animal cloning, and stop animal patents sound good, I’m a little ambivalent about the one to ban pet cloning. I mean, one the one hand, I have had pets I would have liked to have cloned. Don’t a lot of pet-owners feel that way? On the other hand, there are a lot of lonely animals in shelters who need homes, and apparently cloning technology is very new and results in a lot of dead cloned animals. Not good.

All in all, I think AAVS is a great organization. I hope it continues to successfully fight animal cruelty, and I shall read its webpage occasionally to keep up with anti-animal-testing news.

Categories : against animal testing, cruelty free