Animal studies often lead down blind alleys and impede progress. Taking healthy beings from a completely different species, artificially inducing a condition, keeping them in an unnatural and highly stressed condition, then trying to apply the results to humans is, to say the least, seriously flawed, as physiological reactions vary enormously from species to species.

The British Heart Foundation pours millions of pounds into animal experiments. Out of a total income of £90.5 million in 2004, the charity spent £53.3 million on research, with only £22 million going into education and care programmes. These programmes encompass education, providing medical information, emergency life support, cardiac care, and supporting nurses and patient networks – the BHF does not disclose how much is spent solely on education.

PETA has learned of two experiments on dogs that BHF funded. Heart disease rarely occurs in dogs, and it’s usually because they have been bred to grow abnormally large. In one BHF-funded study, experimenters cut open dogs’ chests and circulated their blood out of their bodies and back in again in order to cause the blood pressure in the dogs’ neck arteries to change rapidly. The experimenters’ conclusion? That a person who bends down and suddenly stands up could experience dizziness and fainting! In another experiment, experimenters implanted electrodes into dogs and injected other dogs’ blood into their bodies. The stated purpose was to find out about blood storage in the liver, even though the experimenters acknowledged that dogs store their blood differently from people.

Experiments on animals will yield information about animals – not people! Animals and humans share the capacity for suffering, but physiologically, we are very different. For this reason, drug development and testing on animals has been downright dangerous. After decades of experiments on animals, we have no cure for cancer, no cure for AIDS, no cure for Alzheimer’s, no cure for mad cow disease and little but vague assurances about progress to hang our hopes on.

Fortunately, forward-thinking scientists have developed new methods and continue to use tried-and-true forms of research that harm neither people nor animals. Gordon Baxter, cofounder of Pharmagene Laboratories, a drug research company that uses only human tissues and computers to develop and test drugs, points out: “If you have information on human genes, what’s the point of going back to animals?”

To date, the only cure for heart disease – a low-fat vegan diet, exercise and stress management – was developed by Dr Dean Ornish, who worked with human patients, not with rats and dogs. Dr Ornish is the only researcher who has ever been documented as having reversed heart disease in humans. BHF will not say how much – if any – of their funds go towards educating the public about Dr Ornish’s groundbreaking work with cardiac patients. A vegetarian diet can also help prevent heart disease.

What You Can Do
Don’t support BHF while they continue to fund their cruel and useless experiments. Write and urge them to fund ONLY non-animal research and educational programmes on preventing heart disease:

Mr. Peter Hollins, Director General
British Heart Foundation
14 Fitzhardinge Street
London W1H 6DH
020 7935 0185

The charity’s massive income is generated in part by 470 charity shops across the country. By buying from these shops or dropping change into a donation box, many caring people unknowingly fund animal suffering. Please shop only at animal-friendly charity shops.

Inform your friends and colleagues about the cruel experiments that the British Heart Foundation funds and ask them to choose animal-friendly charities.