Kittens. Birds. Lambs. Monkeys. Ferrets. Mice. The March of Dimes has spent millions of dollars funding experiments that injure, mutilate, poison, and kill adults and babies of all of these animals.
In one study, newborn kittens had their eyelids sewn shut for many months before being killed, in a failed attempt to study visual deprivation. The March of Dimes has funded a series of other disturbing experiments, such as brain damaging and freezing newborn ferrets, seriously dehydrating pregnant ewes, inducing the premature birth of lambs and deliberately inflicting lung injury, giving alcohol and cocaine to pregnant animals, and tethering pregnant monkeys to cages with monitoring cables inserted into their fetuses.
Despite millions of dollars spent and millions of animals tortured and killed, birth defects and preterm births are on the rise. In a CDC two-decade long study, only three of 26 monitored birth defects decreased in the U.S., while 11 were unchanged and 12 increased. Our rate of premature births is just as dismal - the numbers have increased 30% since 1983, and continue to rise. Unbelievably, the U.S. has the second highest newborn mortality rate out of all industrialized countries.
Clearly, animal testing has not led to medical improvements for human babies. Real progress in the fight against birth defects will be made by relying on human-based research and programs.