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Members and Supporters Are Key to Our Success

Supporters and members are instrumental in the Physicians Committee’s successful efforts to promote the health benefits of a plant-based diet and replace animal use in research, testing, and education.

Learn how you can help by donating or taking action to end animal use and improve nutrition, volunteering, and more.

 

Medical Education and Training

Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS)

Currently, 99% of surveyed ATLS programs in the United States and Canada use only human-relevant training methods. Urge this program to end animal use by making the switch to simulation:

North Dakota State University/Sanford Health

Emergency Medicine

Today, 97% of surveyed emergency medicine residency programs in the United States and Canada use only human-relevant training methods. Urge these programs to end animal use by making the switch to simulation:

Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital

Brooke Army Medical Center

Naval Medical Center Portsmouth

University of Missouri Columbia

Medical Student Training

We recently learned that Duke University has regressed and begun using live animals to train its medical students. Meanwhile, all 215 other programs in the United States and Canada use only nonanimal training methods. Please urge the school to end this practice immediately:

Duke University

Surgery

The Physicians Committee began collecting data about the methods used to train surgery residents in December 2018. Currently, 80% of surveyed general surgery residency programs in the United States use only human-relevant training methods. Urge these programs to end animal use by making the switch to simulation:

Northeast Ohio Medical University

Oregon Health and Science University

​University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson

University of Cincinnati

University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Wake Forest University

Medical Experiments

NIH has a new director: Tell her to end animal use in research 
Dr. Monica Bertagnolli has taken office as the new director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She now has the exciting opportunity to lead the agency in the much-needed shift away from the use of animals in research.

End Funding Provisions That Would Increase the Use of Monkeys in Research
The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee has included language in a 2024 funding bill for the National Institutes of Health that allocates $30 million to build up primate research infrastructure and expand primate use. 

Support the CARGO Act
U.S. taxpayers are funding animal experiments overseas, with extremely limited oversight for how these animals are treated or how this money is spent. Ask your U.S. representative to support the CARGO Act to stop the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from funding these foreign animal experiments!

USDA and NIH: investigate Oregon National Primate Research Center
The Oregon National Primate Research Center, part of Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), has repeatedly used and killed hundreds of nonhuman primates, including infants, to study maternal and child health nutrition outcomes that could have been studied ethically and effectively in humans.

Government agencies have a responsibility to curtail ethical violations in research. Please tell the USDA and NIH to investigate the deadly experiments at Oregon National Primate Research Center and impose penalties and corrective action so that future studies focus on nonanimal, human-relevant research that best translates to human health.

Tell FWS: Send Monkeys to Sanctuary
The 1,000 illegally imported monkeys are still being held by Charles River Laboratories in Houston —please urge the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to send these monkeys to an appropriate sanctuary and adopt a policy that all illegally imported nonhuman primates be sent immediately to sanctuary, removing any chance that they be used in experiments.

Tell Elon Musk and Neuralink to Stop Harming Animals!
In August 2020, entrepreneur Elon Musk revealed that his Neuralink employees have implanted computer chips in pigs' brains. This San Francisco-based company has a long history of using animals—including monkeys, mice, and sheep—to conduct experiments that are supposedly aimed at allowing the brain to communicate directly with computers and machines. Please send an email to Musk and the other leaders of Neuralink and urge them to stop using animals and instead focus on human-relevant research methods!

Wayne State University: Stop Heart Failure Experiments on Dogs
After more than 25 years, the experiments on dogs at Wayne State University have contributed nothing to treatments for patients suffering from heart failure or hypertension.

Good Nutrition Policy

USA: Removing Barriers to Plant-Based Meals and Nondairy Milk at School
The Healthy Future Students and Earth Pilot Program Act (H.R. 3276) would provide much-needed resources to local school districts to expand healthful plant-based meal options. Additionally, the bill will remove barrier in federal law that prevent access to nondairy milk. At a time when children are at a greater risk than ever before for diabetes, high cholesterol, and other diet-related diseases that can worsen COVID-19, these options are needed now more than ever.

New York: Plant-Based Option in NY Public Schools
Legislation in New York State (S996 / A3708) will provide plant-based options upon request to students in New York public schools. Ensuring access to plant-based meals at schools is a win for students’ personal health and a win for New York.

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