American Anti-Vivisection Society

History

The American Anti-Vivisection Society was founded by Caroline Earle White and Adele Biddle in 1883 in Philadelphia. The group was inspired by Britain's recently passed Cruelty to Animals Act 1876. Caroline White corresponded with Frances Power Cobbe, the woman who led the Victoria Street Society and had the Cruelty of Animals Act passed. The Society advocated complete abolition of vivisection in scientific testing. The first two members – Caroline Earle White and Mary Frances Lovell – worked with their husbands in the Pennsylvania Society to Prevent Cruelty to Animals (PSPCA), yet felt that their capabilities extended beyond what the PSPCA had to offer and, in 1869, founded the Women's Branch of the PSPCA (today known as the Women's Humane Society). The AAVS launched leaflet campaigns, held marches and recruited legislative advocates.

The first American animal testing facilities were opened in the 1860s and 1870s, much to the dismay of animal rights pioneers. The biggest concern of the AAVS was the implementation of vivisection in medical testing. Mark Twain's sketch "A Dog's Tale" was used by the Anti-Vivisection Society in its campaign against that practice. Additionally, it was issued by the British Anti-Vivisection Society as a pamphlet shortly after it was first published in Harper's Magazine in late 1903. In 1908, the AAVS tried to pass anti-vivisection legislation in Pennsylvania but was defeated by the "determination" of the medical profession.

In the 1920s the AAVS sponsored a humane alternative to fur, a synthetic fur known as "humanifur". The AAVS gained medical support but remained at odds with the American Medical Association (AMA), who argued that vivisection was critical to furthering medical advances. Anti-vivisectionists spent the next three decades trying to achieve legislation at state level but only succeeded on a national scale until the 1960s.

In 1962, Owen B. Hunt president of the AAVS argued against regulation of vivisection and stated that the "American Anti-Vivisection Society stands, as it always has done, for abolition of vivisection on the ground that it is wrong, cruel and fruitless".

The AAVS has consistently worked on educating the public on issues regarding animal cruelty as well as worked with the U.S. Federal government in passing legislations for animal rights.