Henry Spira
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Henry Spira (June 19, 1927 – September 12, 1998) was a prominent animal rights activist, and architect of the movement in the United States to stop the use of animals in experiments. Though born in Antwerp, Belgium, he and his family, who were Jews, moved to America in 1940 (during the Second World War) to escape Nazism.
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[edit] Activism
Apparently, one of the major influences on Spira was Peter Singer's 1973 work, Animal Liberation. In 1974, Spira founded Animal Rights International (ARI) and in 1976, he led the ARI's campaign against vivisection on cats by the American Museum of Natural History; it was the first such campaign ever to succeed in stopping the experiments.
Another well-known campaign was targeted at cosmetics giant Revlon's use of the Draize test, which involved the blinding of animals - in this case, rabbits - to determine whether cosmetic products were irritants. On April 15, 1980, Spira and the ARI took out a full page advert in the New York Times, with the header, How many rabbits does Revlon blind for beauty's sake? As a result, Revlon began research into "cruelty free" alternatives.
Henry took a picture of a primate who had been imprisoned for months in a Bethesda Naval Hospital chair to the Black Star Wire Service which sent the picture around the world. It was shown to Indira Gandhi, India's PM, who cancelled monkey export to the US, since she found that the picture proved that the US Navy was violating the treaty with India which forbade military research on animals.
Other campaigns targeted the face branding of cattle, the poultry industry, and fast food giant KFC (with an advert that combined a KFC bucket and a toilet). Nevertheless, Spira was an advocate of gradual change, for example, negotiating with McDonald's for better conditions in the slaughterhouses of its suppliers.
Spira proved especially adept at leveraging the power of the larger animal welfare organizations like the Humane Society of the United States to advance his campaigns.
Spira died of esophageal cancer in 1998. His life was chronicled by Peter Singer in Ethics Into Action: Henry Spira and the Animal Rights Movement (Rowman & Littlefield, 1998).
[edit] See also
- Vegetarianism, Veganism
- Utilitarianism, Utilitarian Bioethics
- R. M. Hare, Joseph Fletcher
- Animal Liberation Front, Animal Liberation Front Supporters Group
- Animal testing, Vivisection
- Barry Horne
- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
- GANDALF trial
- Animal rights
[edit] External link
- In Memoriam - from Animal Rights International.
- A Poem To Spira
http://www.animalsvoice.com/PAGES/writes/editorial/essays/vivi/spira_star.html
[edit] References
- Henry Spira. "Fighting to Win". In Peter Singer (ed), In Defense of Animals, New York: Basil Blackwell, 1985, pp. 194-208.
- Peter Singer. Ethics Into Action, Rowman & Littlefield, 1998. [Describes much of Spira's work. Some excerpts available online: "Ten Ways to Make a Difference" and "A Meaningful Life".]
