Concerns About the March of Dimes

Reform the March of Dimes

Background

The March of Dimes (MOD) does not indicate how much money it funnels into animal experiments. Minimal estimates, drawn from funding summaries, show that at least $10 million per year goes to bankroll animal experiments. The charity does not report, or even keep track of, the number of animals used in these experiments. Animals used and killed include cats, dogs, macaque monkeys, baboons, ferrets, guinea pigs, sheep, owls, finches, mice, and rats.

Examples of MOD-Funded Experiments:

Gruesome Experiments Blinding Cats, Ferrets, and Hamsters
More than $225,500 was used to fund these experiments over three years. In one case, experimenters sewed shut the eyelids of newborn kittens. The kittens were killed one year later to study what effect blinding had on their brains. By the MOD's own admission, no clinically relevant advances came from this study. Similar experiments were performed on cats raised in total darkness from birth to four to six months of age and then killed. Experiments were also conducted on hamsters and ferrets to investigate how alternative visual pathways develop in the brain if the original visual pathways are surgically destroyed. Papers published by the experimenters do not mention any clinical relevance to these studies.

In a review of these experiments, Ned Buyukmihci, V.M.D., a veterinary ophthalmologist writes, "The difference between non-human animals and humans may be sufficient to render whatever was learned meaningless with respect to human beings. For example, cats and ferrets have much of their visual development after birth. In humans, much of the visual development has occurred prior to birth, in an environment considerably different from that of animals."

Needless Experiments Giving Alcohol, Nicotine, Cocaine, and Other Drugs to Animals
The tests generally entail giving these harmful substances to pregnant animals, then assessing the effects on their offspring. For example, pregnant rats were injected with nicotine and cocaine to observe how the drugs affected their offspring's performance in a maze. Alcohol has been given to newborn opossums to determine how it affects the development of their reproductive physiology, behavior, and anatomy, even though medical science already has a solid understanding of fetal alcohol syndrome in humans.

Experiments on Cross-Species Organ Transplants, Such as Putting Pigs' Organs into Primates and Guinea Pig-to-Rat Transplants
Few of the primates in these experiments survived more than three days. Several died within one to two hours, at least two died of "operative complications," and another was killed due to a wound infection. The cross-species transplants performed so far have been unpromising failures. Moreover, pathogens can pass from animals to humans during cross-species transplants, potentially introducing virulent new diseases into the human population.

Questionable Physiology Experiments
Many of the published papers on these experiments report that similar experiments carried out in different species give conflicting results. Experimenters also often note that animal experiments, such as MOD-funded experiments involving hearts removed from guinea pigs and rabbits, the manipulation of zebra finch nerve fibers, and lungs removed from newborn pigs and rabbits, may not mimic the human situation.

Many of the animal experiments funded in 2002 included genetically modified animals, who are given a mutation and used to establish breeding colonies of many animals with similar mutations, so that the scientist can test out new treatments on each different kind of animal. The establishment of a genetically modified mouse colony can result in the death of hundreds of animals during one experiment, as each "recombinant" is tested for their reaction to a proposed treatment. In addition, it is not clear whether by "knocking out" a specific gene, scientists are not deleting other biochemical characteristics that will affect the experimental outcome. As an example, one experiment involved a "panel" of mouse mutants to scan the murine genome for genetic defects related to a schizophrenia-related behavioral disorder. In another, scientists made a mouse colony with a genetic defect so severe that the mice are subject to repetitive seizures and death by 20 days of age.

March of Dimes Finances

In 2002, the MOD's revenue totaled more than $216 million, yet the incidence of most birth defects continues to rise. MOD finances came under broad public scrutiny in December 1996 when the New York Times reported that a now-resigned MOD board member, Michael L. Curtis, kept more than $2 million in funds that he ostensibly raised for the March of Dimes. MOD president Jennifer Howse, whose own compensation exceeds $450,000, did not require Curtis to pledge collateral or other security despite the enormous size of his debt to MOD. The National Charities Information Bureau's (NCIB's) June 1997 report on MOD argues that MOD's lenient dealings with Curtis after the scandal broke "appear to result in a direct financial benefit to an individual [Curtis] who was, at the time, a member of MOD's Board."

Human-Centered Studies Offer Hope

Virtually all known developmental hazards were identified and/or characterized through studies of human populations, including the thalidomide disaster, fetal rubella syndrome, the role of folic acid in preventing spinal cord abnormalities, the effects of lead and methyl mercury on development, and, more recently, the discovery that magnesium sulfate may prevent nearly two-thirds of the cases of cerebral palsy and almost half of the cases mental retardation in at-risk babies. It is clear that prevention and effective human-centered clinical and epidemiological research are the keys to eliminating birth defects.

What the March of Dimes Should Do

MOD should redirect its funding from animal experiments to humane methods that will help decrease birth defects: studies of human populations that track down the causes of these tragedies, birth defect monitoring systems, developing test-tube studies that would more accurately predict a substance's potential to cause defects, and social and educational programs to provide services to prevent birth defects through proper prenatal care and reducing high-risk behavior. MOD already allots some revenue to these areas, but every dollar spent giving cocaine to monkeys is a dollar not going to prevention, education, and humane research that works.

The March of Dimes should develop a plan to eliminate its funding of animal experiments. As part of that process, it should report the extent of animal use in the experiments it funds, including monetary cost, species and number of animals used, and descriptions of all current and planned animal experiments.

What You Can Do

Support local programs that provide services for pregnant women and families and that promote prenatal care to decrease the incidence of birth defects. Every dollar spent on improving the availability of prenatal care could reduce total costs for infant medical care by more than three dollars.

Contact local businesses that support MOD and alert them to the charity's shocking animal experiments and the increasing public concern about them.

Use PCRM's sample letter to March of Dimes' sponsors and the sample letter to March of Dimes' celebrity supporters.

If you or anyone you know is planning to participate in WalkAmerica, MOD's largest fundraiser, consider supporting instead one of the many worthy charities that fund no animal experiments, such as the Association of Birth Defect Children (ABDC). ABDC operates the National Environmental Birth Defect Registry to track patterns of disability associated with prenatal exposures. See www.HumaneSeal.org or contact PCRM for a full list of health charities that do not fund animal experiments.

Contact PCRM for additional information on how you can help speed MOD away from animal experiments. Contact MOD's national office and your local MOD chapter to express your concerns about its ongoing funding of animal experiments.

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