World Week for Animals in Laboratories
April 20-26, 2008

Thank you for speaking out for animals during 2008's World Week for Animals in Laboratories!

IDA's 22nd annual World Week for Animals in Laboratories (WWAIL) was held from April 20th to 26th. In collaboration with IDA, activists successfully hosted, promoted and publicized WWAIL demonstrations in over 50 cities in the U.S., as well as in Canada, France, Israel, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.

Events ranged from large-scale marches against vivisection to the distribution of IDA's leaflet on Humane Alternatives to Animal Testing. These activities helped educate the public about the scientific, moral and economic realities of animal experimentation. On behalf of animals in labs and all of us at IDA, thank you for a powerful week of action!

For those of you unable to participate this year, please join IDA and activists throughout the world next April to make WWAIL 2009 the most powerful anti-vivisection event to date.

If you don't see your WWAIL event photos and updates below, we want to hear from you! Please email wwail@idausa.org.

Canada
Toronto

ARK II - The Animal Rights Kollective hosted a noontime demonstration against Procter & Gamble in Toronto on Friday, April 25. Two rabbit mascots attracted the attention of passersby and motorists while other activists leafleted. Activists held signs to boycott P&G and educate the public about the cruel and unnecessary animal testing it continues to perform even on its pet food brands (Iams, Eukanuba). In addition, activists distributed cruelty-free guides. ARK II has also provided a sample letter to its members to customize and fax/mail to Tim Penner (Canadian president of P&G) to stop its animal testing.

New York
Syracuse

Lou DeSantis, of People for Animal Rights of Syracuse, summarized his event:

"We had about a dozen protesters this year, which is small compared to the thirty-plus of two years ago. But I would take this year over two years-ago because that was on a Saturday and there was absolutely no traffic, this year it was on a Thursday from 4:30-6:00 and traffic was lined up right in front of us. I was completely shocked by how many cars were beeping their horns and the number of thumbs up we were getting.

Clearly, the public attitude towards animal research is changing for the better."

Oregon
Portland

NW IDA's main focus was the nicotine and other cruel experiments conducted at the Oregon Health and Science University's (OHSU) Oregon Primate Center. In Portland IDA held 7 WWAIL events and had more than 50 activists attend and participate in a busy week of outreach for animals in labs.

We kicked off the week with a door hanger outreach where volunteers walked area neighborhoods leaving information about how Portlanders can take action to end Eliot Spindel's cruel and useless nicotine experiments on mother monkeys and their babies.

We also had IDA volunteers tabling at a local Earth Day celebration where hundreds of people got the message about helping animals in labs as a part of larger message focused on protecting the environment.

On Tuesday April 22nd, IDA's Matt Rossell participated in a national press event where activists in seven cities with large primate labs - including Davis California, Boston, Seattle, and Madison Wisconsin - held news conferences to expose these federally funded labs ongoing refusal to report honestly the pain and distress of primates suffering in their labs was required by the Animal Welfare Act. This event was covered by the Willamette Week newsweekly and Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Throughout the week, IDA also held three demonstrations at OHSU facilities including a health clinic, their main campus and the Oregon National Primate Research Center. Our giant 10 foot banner could not be missed by passersby as activists handed out literature to pedestrians and drivers stopped at the busy intersections.

IDA concluded the week of Portland events by leafleting at the March of Dimes Walk for Babies, passing out information about how participants can reform the charity to help more babies by eliminating wasteful animal experiments. The Radical Cheerleaders joined IDA near the finish line with a rousing round of new cheers crafted for the occasion.

Hawaii
Kihei

On April 20th, Barbara Steinberg held a booth themed "Animal Rights for Earth Day," at the Maui Earth Day festival. She had anti-vivisection petitions and received local news coverage. Barbara says that her booth was "well visited all day long." Also, her WWAIL letter-to-the-editor was printed in the Maui News and the Maui Weekly.

Texas
Houston

Society of Peace organized a demonstration on April 24. Janice Blue and Jewell Maida spearheaded the event with help from Kristen Ohanyan and other members of Society of Peace. Because of the late afternoon time their ideal location, Jewell Maida estimates that thousands of cars passed, returning home from downtown. She also estimates that hundreds of joggers walked and/or jogged by, many taking leaflets and some signing the petition to stop animal testing in laboratories. A Ft. Bend County high school science teacher urged the activists to, "please do something that will end animal dissection in schools".

Stay tuned for more event updates and pictures...