Many businesses encourage their employees and customers to support worthy causes. If you buy your groceries at Safeway, buy a car from General Motors, or drink A&W Root Beer, you are indeed supporting a worthy charity. All of these businesses donate to PCRM’s 1997 Charity of the Year, the National Easter Seal Society, which provides direct services to those with disabilities, works to improve education and employment opportunities for the disabled, and funds research to improve the quality of life for people living with disabilities and to prevent birth defects and other disabilities.

On the other hand, if you are a customer or employee of Kmart, CIGNA HealthCare, or Ford Motor Company, you may be dismayed to learn that these businesses still support the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, which funds experiments on animals.

As is now well known, the March of Dimes has spent millions of dollars on experiments giving nicotine, cocaine, and alcohol to animals, even though we already know from human clinical experience that these substances can harm a developing baby. Other March of Dimes experimenters have sewn kittens’ eyelids shut and left them in that condition for months before killing them.

The March of Dimes has collected nearly $900 million at WalkAmerica events since the fundraising walks began in 1970. While it does fund some service and education programs and limited epidemiologic research, PCRM holds that it should put all its resources into human population studies to track down the causes of birth defects, and prenatal education and care to prevent them. Regrettably, the rates for most types of birth defects are going up, not down.

Kmart has been the top WalkAmerica fundraiser for the last 12 years and has raised nearly $1 million each year for the charity. This year, Kmart outlets stocked WalkAmerica sponsor forms and collected in-store donations. CIGNA HealthCare was the number two WalkAmerica corporate fundraisers. Other national WalkAmerica sponsors include the Florida Department of Citrus and the Kellogg Company.

Please write to the companies you patronize or work for, asking them to contribute to the many hard-working organizations that fund human-based research and services.

You can also contact the local businesses in your area, such as radio or television stations, local retail chains, or regional banks. Let them know how you feel about experiments on animals and offer them information on cruelty-free charities they can support.