Christmas is a time of giving, and during this time of year many people make donations to their favourite charity. However many popular health charities fund animal research, often without making it clear to the public. As a result, the public continues to donate money with the best of intentions to medical and health charities not realising that they may actually be funding unnecessary animal experiments.
59% of Australians have indicated they would not donate to a health or medical research charity if they knew it was funding animal experimentation (a further 23% did not know).
The Humane Charities List is a list of health and medical research charities which have advised HRA that they do not fund animal-based research. This means that you can safely make a donation to these organisations knowing that you are not financially supporting cruel and unnecessary animal experiments. The list now stands at 97 and includes many well-known charities such as HeartKids, Beyond Blue, the McGrath Foundation and the Fred Hollows Foundation.
The list provides some ease for people who, when solicited for donations can now ask “Are you on the Humane Charities List?” making it much easier to express their disapproval of animal experiments.
We would love you to support the Humane Charities List by joining its Facebook page, downloading the app and approaching your own favourite charities to ask if they fund animal experiments, and if they don’t, encouraging them to apply online to be on the list. We also have car stickers and fliers available to help spread the word.
The longer the list grows and the more people refuse to fund animal experiments the more charities will realise that they need to move toward more humane and scientifically valid methods of research which will bring more effective solutions to our urgent medical needs.
Thank you for your support in making this a more compassionate Christmas for all.
