Americans for Medical Progress - one of our worst enemies
by Alison
In response to the recent message about the web site of the Foundation
for Biomedical Research, there are many more such sites. Americans for
Medical Progress
http://www.ampef.org, for instance. Americans for
Medical Progress (AMP) is, according to The Wall Street Journal, "a
public-relations front formed and largely funded by U.S. Surgical
Corp. ... With sales of more than $800 million a year, [U.S. Surgical]
isn't on a quest for a cure for cancer. It uses and kills a thousand
dogs each year so that its customers ... can practice surgery using
U.S. Surgical products." In fact, according to AMP's initial 1991 tax
returns, $980,000 of its $980,760 income came from U.S. Surgical, a
company whose sales staff cuts open healthy dogs and then staples the
wounds closed to demonstrate surgical staples. After the display, the
dogs are killed.
Despite its innocuous, even noble-sounding name, Americans for Medical
Progress's goal is not and never has been to advance medicine. Its
mission is to defend and keep the dollars rolling in for its funders,
who make a fat profit by torturing animals in the name of science.
AMP is devoted SOLELY to combating animal rights.
Because AMP and groups like it are unable to defend animal
experimentation on its own merits, their main strategy is to ignore
entirely the ethical questions surrounding animal experiments and
instead resort to misinformation and attacks on proponents of animal
rights. They try to play on people's emotions by presenting false
set-ups, like the rat vs. your child scenario they are so fond of.
Rarely if ever do they address the ethics of animal experiments--no
doubt because they can't.
Tellingly, AMP attacks all animal rights positions, even those that
have nothing to do with experimentation. AMP has spent resources
attacking PETA's position on vegetarianism and was even one of the
main parties behind recent lobbying efforts to prevent women from
access to Duramed, an alternative to Premarin.
Recently Susan Paris, president of AMP, sent an op-ed to newspapers
around the country (many of which printed it) attacking PETA for not
doing enough for shelters. PETA, of course, has never claimed to
focus on shelters and in fact has been very clear that its mission is
to focus on animals in laboratories, the fur trade, factory farms, and
the entertainment industry. But AMP conveniently ignored that and
attempted to argue that PETA is just out to line its own pockets since
it's not doing more for shelters. (AMP also blatantly lied about the
amount of assistance PETA does give to shelters.) As if animal
suffering is confined to shelters!
I think the best tactic for dealing with these groups is to refuse to
let them change the subject. There's a reason they're so desperate to
deflect attention away from animal testing and on to its opponents:
they are simply unable to defend animal experiments. We shouldn't
allow them to define the debate in their convoluted way; we should
state clearly and unequivocally what the issues are and refuse to let
them avoid them.
The Americans for Murdering Progress, sorry Susan, I meant Americans for
Medical Profits, umm, I just can't get it right. Oh, It's Americans for
Medical Progress. Is this right, Sue? Their toll-free number for your public
information is 1-800-426-7872. Susan E. Paris, the president, is available to
recite lies to you, you can call -it- and other programmed robots profiting
from the blood of the suffering for all the lies you want to hear. You can
call the # and ask for -it- when you call for the lies. Please keep the
conversation(s) short, for if you keep them on the phone for at least 30
seconds you will cost them a dollar, and if you call from your home phone it
is cheaper than street phones. You don't want to waste their blood-soaked
money, do you?
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