Letter to Breast Cancer Charities

Decades after the "War on Cancer" was launched, we still have no cure for breast cancer. And the billions of dollars spent on cruel and ineffective experiments on monkeys, rats, mice, rabbits, cats, dogs, and other animals, who are injected with chemicals or cancer cells and forced to endure the growth of painful tumors until they die or are killed, have not identified the causes of breast cancer or a treatment. 

The use of animals for breast cancer research is unreliable because of animals' significant genetic, cellular, and physiological differences from humans. Breast cancer survivor and National Breast Cancer Coalition founder Fran Visco has stated that, "Animals don't reflect the reality of cancer in humans," and former National Cancer Institute Director Dr. Richard Klausner has stated, "The history of cancer research has been the history of curing cancer in the mouse. We have cured mice of cancer for decades, and it simply didn't work in humans." Yet animals continue to suffer and die as a result of these useless experiments, and the misleading results prolong the suffering of women who need a cure now. 

Humane, non-animal research is being conducted by compassionate organizations that focus on how breast cancer starts in women's bodies and on identifying ways to combat the genetic and environmental factors that increase the risk of developing breast cancer. Through the "Breasts, Not Animal Tests" campaign, PETA has teamed up with Keep A Breast to help raise awareness of this horrible disease and the cruelty involved in the animal experimentation funded by some cancer charities.

Recipients

John R. Seffrin, American Cancer Society

Addie Nelson Backlund, American-Italian Cancer Foundation

John C. Ruckdeschel, M.D., Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute

Myra J. Biblowit, Breast Cancer Research Foundation

Patricia Scott, Coalition Against Breast Cancer

Lisa Paulsen, EIF, National Women's Cancer Research Alliance

Donald L. Morton, John Wayne Cancer Institute

Priscilla Page, Lynn Sage Cancer Research Foundation

Janelle Hail, National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc.

Louis M. Weiner, M.D., Nina Hyde Center for Breast Cancer Research

Hala Moddelmog, Susan G. Komen for the Cure

Annis Tarver, The Cancer Center for Detection and Prevention, Inc.

Helen Marie Walker, Walker Cancer Research Institute

Dear whom it may concern,

I am writing to you because I am concerned about your funding of misleading and cruel breast cancer experiments on animals.

The lives of animals in laboratories are full of terror, loneliness, and misery. Animals used in cancer experiments are frequently injected with cancer cells and forced to endure the growth of painful tumors until they die or are killed.

Because of fundamental differences in biology and disease development between species, animal experiments have repeatedly failed to predict how cancer treatments will perform in humans. Luckily for women and animals, there are sophisticated non-animal methods in breast cancer research--like 3-dimensional in-vitro models--that are both extremely effective and humane.

I am calling on you to follow the lead of other organizations, including the Avon Foundation and the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, by focusing on cutting-edge, human-centered cancer research in your fight to find a cure for breast cancer.

Sincerely,

Kate Wallace