A Brief History of the American Anti-Vivisection Society continued
an Exhibit Committee, charged with creating a traveling exhibit displaying the instruments and practices involved in animal experimentation. Convinced that viewers could not help but be appalled by vivisection practices, AAVS opened its first exhibit in Philadelphia in 1910, and was soon sending materials to supporters around the country to display at state fairs and public gatherings. Also in 1910, AAVS and other anti-vivisection organizations reprinted an account found in the New York Herald, reporting on the use of vivisection on orphans in a Philadelphia orphanage. Citing an article in The Archives of Internal Medicine, the Herald (and later the Journal of Zoophily) reported that eyes of children at St. Vincent’s home were infected with tuberculosis, causing severe pain and even permanent blindness for some of the children.4 Public outcry resulted, and Americans called for stricter accounting of medical research. Raising public awareness continued to play a major role in AAVS history throughout the twentieth century. Throughout the 1950s, President Owen B. Hunt brought the AAVS message into American living rooms through his regular radio broadcasts, “Have You a Dog?,” and occasional spots on radio and television talk shows into the 1970s. In 1973, AAVS supported Congressman Les Aspin in bringing public attention to the military’s use of beagles in testing poisonous gases and other chemicals. The Department of Defense was forced to change this practice AAVS President Owen Hunt during one of his many radio broadcasts.
AAVS
Starving dogs, originally destined for research, being fed.
when the issue created the heaviest volume of public letters and outrage the department had ever seen. AAVS continues to raise public awareness of vivisection’s extremes through advertisements and articles in the AV Magazine. Realizing the importance of education in changing public perceptions about vivisection, AAVS engaged in various humane education programs throughout the twentieth century. In addition to the Journal of Zoophily (which changed its name to The Starry Cross in 1922, The A-V in 1939, and later the AV Magazine), the Society published pamphlets and booklets describing the horrors of vivisection, and leaflets that reminded pet owners to safeguard their animals from brokers who sold animals to laboratories. AAVS literature asked readers to consider the moral implications of torturing animals for the soul of the vivisector and for society as a whole. Early efforts included attempts to eliminate classroom dissections and demonstrations using animals, as well as legislation to encourage humane education in public schools. In 1927, AAVS Secretary Nina Halvey continued the charge for education by registering to teach humane education in schools throughout the Philadelphia area as ‘Miss B’Kind.’ Over the ensuing two decades, Halvey led a children’s anti-vivisection society known as the Miss B’Kind Club, which met regularly at AAVS headquarters, and even hosted parties for children who promised to “be kind to animals now and when I grow up.”5 In 1942, AAVS held a three-day AntiVivisection School in Philadelphia. Led by then AAVS President Robert R. Logan, students were treated to lectures and
practical instruction on the legislative process, public speaking, and running publicity campaigns. The school was held annually for several years. This emphasis on humane education for children and adults continues to be a goal of AAVS today, as seen through its Animalearn program. Related to the goals of strong legislation, public awareness, and humane education, AAVS has spent much of its history seeking alternatives to the use of animals in science and society. In 1936, President Robert R. Logan began a campaign against trapping by promoting the wearing of fake fur. Logan himself wore faux fur coats to exhibitions and speeches. Beginning in the 1970s, the Society began to raise awareness and advocate for alternatives to animal testing by cosmetic companies. In the 1980s, AAVS began making direct grants for alternativesdriven research. The first of these was given to Dr. Joseph Leighton and his research team at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, who worked to create an alternative to the Draize test that often blinded animals in cosmetic testing. This support of alternative research methods continues today through the efforts of the Alternatives Research & Development Foundation, an affiliate of AAVS. Throughout the past 125 years, commitment to AAVS’s mission has driven the Society’s public outreach as well as its many programs and campaigns. With each new generation, the organization has adapted to the times, yet in a very real sense, has remained remarkably consistent in striving for its goal of ending the use of animals in science.
MILESTONES 1883 AAVS is founded by Caroline Earle White.
1885 The first bill to restrict vivisection is prepared by her husband Richard P. White, and introduced in the Pennsylvania state legislature.
1892 AAVS, along with sister organization, the Women’s Pennsylvania SPCA, launches publication of the Journal of Zoophily, now known as the AV Magazine.
1900 AAVS President Dr. Matthew Woods speaks before the U.S. Senate Committee in favor of the Gallinger Bill for the Further Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which defines animal experimentation as an act of cruelty.
1910 AAVS learns of and publicizes horrific tuberculosis experiments conducted on orphans in Philadelphia, leading to public outcry.
1913 A bill to institute pound seizure in Pennsylvania is introduced. Outraged, Mrs. White writes to the legislature on behalf of AAVS, voicing opposition to the bill, which was later defeated.
1922
Journal of Zoophily, Vol. 14, No. 3 (March 1905), p. 26; Vol.15, No. 1 (Jan. 1906), pp. 5-6. Journal of Zoophily, Vol. 19, No. 5 (May 1910), pp. 55-58. 4
“St. Vincent’s Home Experiments,” The Archives of Internal Medicine, Vol. 2, No 5. “Miss B’Kind Club” pamphlets. AAVS publication, ca. 1940s. Found in AAVS Archives, Series 5, Folder 8. 5
1941 World’s Fair in New York includes Animal Protection Day, and AAVS President Robert Logan is a featured speaker.
1942 AAVS hosts a three-day Anti-Vivisection School, giving the public the tools to be better animal advocates.
Non facias malum ut inde fiat bonum. Latin for ‘You cannot do evil that good may result,’ this is one of AAVS’s earliest mottos.
Animalearn, AAVS’s education division is established; also the Demeter Fund, which later became the Alternatives Research & Development Foundation (ARDF).
1992
The Starry Cross From 1919-1938, the AV Magazine was known as The Starry Cross.
Students in Pennsylvania are granted the right to choose alternatives to dissection. AAVS drafts the original version of this bill.
1999 As a result of legal petitions filed by AAVS and ARDF, the National Institutes of Health, announces a new policy requiring researchers, with certain exceptions, to use nonanimal methods to produce monoclonal antibodies. It is estimated that one million mice each year are spared as a result.
2000
AAVS challenge succeeds in convincing the U.S. Patent Office to re-open Texas A&M University’s patent on beagles for research. The University abandons its claim to the patent.
2006 The first U.S. company cloning companion animals closes its doors after a multi-pronged AAVS campaign. Responding to an AAVS petition, USDA amends its policies on cloned and genetically engineered animals by providing protections to these animals under the AWA.
Animal experiments are cruel Stop them.
The Weeping Beagle Widely used in the 1980s, the weeping beagle was an often used symbol to represent the plight of animals in laboratories.
Project Animal Welfare Act: An Act for All This mouse is an important logo for our Project Animal Welfare Act campaign, which was launched in 1998 and is working for the inclusion of birds, rats, and mice under the Animal Welfare Act.
2007
AAVS protests the Soviet space launch of Laika, a stray dog from Moscow’s streets.
2008
AV MAGAZINE
Over our 125 year history, AAVS has adopted several different logos and mottos in an effort to easily convey our mission of ending the use of animals in research, testing, and education. Here are just a few of our most widely recognized symbols used to represent AAVS and our important work.
1990
1957
The Help the Huskies campaign is established, providing aid to dogs living in impoverished areas in Alaska.
A Look Back
Suffer the Animals, an exposé documenting the suffering of animals in labs, is released. AAVS helps to fund this effort, partnering with the International Association Against Painful Experiments on Animals.
AAVS assumes leadership of the Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics’ Leaping Bunny Program to alert consumers to cruelty-free companies and products.
1963
SPRING 2008
1983
2005
The international anti-vivisection convention is held in Philadelphia. AAVS establishes the Miss B’Kind Club, a humane education program for children across the Philadelphia region.
3
AAVS provides its first funding to develop alternatives to the Draize rabbit eye test.
1926 1927
Craig Buettinger, “Women and Antivivisection in Late Nineteenth Century America,” Journal of Social History, Vol. 30, No. 40 (June 1997), p. 858.
1981
AAVS and ARDF win standing for a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging USDA’s exclusion of birds, rats, and mice under the AWA. Ultimately, some of these animals are covered.
“The Vivisection Question,” Science, Vol. 2, No. 38. (Oct. 26, 1883), pp. 551-552. 2
AAVS mounts a powerful protest against the use of beagles in military tests of poisonous gases and other chemicals. This resulted in the highest volume of protest mail ever received by the Department of Defense.
AAVS’s Nina Halvey is awarded placement on the National Good Will Delegation to a war-torn France.
Resources 1
1973
AAVS celebrates its 125th Anniversary, rededicating its work to ending the use of animals in science.
Celebrating 125 Years Representing a wide variety of animals in our mission to end animal research, AAVS is proud to unveil its new logo!
A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN ANTI-VIVISECTION SOCIETY