End Animal Cloning

Animal cloning is an area of biotechnology that can cause a tremendous amount of animal suffering, due to its over 95 percent failure rate, which is exacerbated by gross birth defects, severe deformities, and major organ failure. Because cloning compromises the health of the animals involved, there is also serious human safety issues surrounding the technology. Nonetheless, in 2008, the Food and Drug Administration released its final Risk Assessment Report on animal cloning, which stated that foods such as meat and milk from cloned animals and their progeny are safe for human consumption. However, AAVS has joined forces with several other organizations in an effort to stop the cloning of animals for food.

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Animal Welfare Act

The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) is the only piece of federal legislation that exists to ensure the health and well-being of certain animals in laboratories through specific standards of care and treatment guidelines. However, the AWA does not protect the majority of animals used in research and testing, namely birds, rats, and mice bred for research and cold-blooded animals like fish. AAVS has been working diligently on behalf of these animals in an effort to push for their inclusion under the umbrella of the AWA.

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Ban Pound Seizure

Pound seizure is a morally and ethically unacceptable practice involving the release of dogs and cats from pounds and shelters to research facilities for use in animal experimentation. Iowa, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Utah require pound seizure while many other states leave the matter to local municipalities to decide. AAVS is working closely with grassroots groups to help enact legislation and policy that bans pound seizure.

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No Pet Cloning

In 2001, the first cloned cat was introduced to the world, and soon after, a company cloned a house cat for $50,000. Due to the tremendous suffering that is involved in animal cloning, AAVS launched a massive effort to educate the public about the dangers of this technology resulting in this company's closing. To this end, AAVS was successful at squashing the cat cloning industry in the U.S., however, now a company is proposing to clone dogs. AAVS is geering up again to let the public know about the dangers and deceptions with pet cloning.

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Stop Animal Patents

Animals are neither machines nor inventions. However, over the past two decades, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued well over 600 patents on animals to countless research institutions. Animals exploited in this industry suffer greatly as they are engineered, manipulated, and experimented on so that companies can profit from their pain. AAVS has been working to end this practice and has successfully challenged two animal patents: one on beagles who were purposely sickened with mold and another for rabbits whose eyes were intentionally injured to develop treatments for dry eye.

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Compassionate Shopping

One of the easiest ways you can help animals in laboratories is to shop cruelty-free, and having AAVS's easy-to-read Compassionate Shopping Guide makes it convenient. There are no federal regulations that require manufacturers to test their personal care and household products on animals. In fact, hundreds of companies have made a commitment to cruelty-free policies. The only reliable cruelty-free certification is operated by the Leaping Bunny Program, which AAVS Chairs.

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Animalearn

AAVS's education division, Animalearn works to end vivisection and dissection in the classroom. From elementary to college and university levels, Animalearn works directly with educators and parents and students to make classrooms more compassionate by providing humane education materials, working to implement student choice policies, and hosting teacher training workshops. Animalearn is also the curator of The Science Bank, the largest alternatives to dissection lending library in the country.

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