Date: Sun, 08 Nov 1998 21:36:05 +0000
From: David <mehdi@globalnet.co.uk>
Subject: Tatchell, Linda Blair & Joaquim Phoenix to Launch Campaign

Tatchell Joins With Film Stars Linda Blair & Joaquim Phoenix to Launch
Hollywood Campaign Against Animal Experiments.

Gay rights and AIDS campaigner Peter Tatchell of OutRage! joined Linda
Blair a and other celebrities at a Hollywood Gala on 27 October 1998 for
the launch of a new advertising campaign exposing health charities that
fund animal experiments.

Tatchell argues that animal-based research is "scientifically flawed "and
is hindering the fight against AIDS".

The ad campaign is organised by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
(PETA). The press ad features a green-eyed, head-spinning Linda Blair and
the caption: "Animal Experiments Make My Head Spin" - a reference to
Blair's Oscar-nominated role in "The Exorcist", which is being re-released
to coincide with the 25th anniversary of its original launch in 1973.

The advertisement against animal experimentation was unveiled at a
pre-Halloween PETA gala screening of "The Exorcist" at the world famous
Mann's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.

Blair and Tatchell were joined at the unveiling by gothic horror actor
Elvira and Joaquim Phoenix -brother of the late River Phoenix- and one of
Hollywood's sexiest and hottest new stars.

Speaking at PETA's gala Tatchell said:

"Animal experiments are undermining -not helping- the fight against AIDS.
Protease inhibitor drugs have prolonged the lives of many people with HIV.
The availability, however, of these life-saving treatments was delayed for
four years after test trials resulted in the death of laboratory animals.
During this four-year delay, tens of thousands of people with HIV -who
could have benefited from protease inhibitors- died. Many might be alive
now if researchers had not made the mistaken assumption that data taken
from animal studies can be applied to humans.".

HIV is a uniquely human disease. All the key breakthroughs in AIDS
treatment have been based on the interaction of HIV with human cells, not
the cells of other species. Some of the USA's top AIDS researchers who had
previously experimented with chimpanzees, such as Professor Patricia Fulz,
now concede that animal studies are of little or no relevance to
understanding HIV in people".

"Animal experimentation is bad science. Research findings with other
species cannot be generalised to humans, because animals and people are
very different biologically, as evidenced by the way protease inhibitors
can kill dogs and rats, but save the lives of people with AIDS", said
Tatchell.

Photos of Peter Tatchell with Linda Blair and Joaquim Phoenix are available
from Garry Trotter -01628.542.554. (in the USA from PETA, +757.622.7382

Email: outrage@cygnet.co.uk  Website: www.OutRage.cygnet.co.uk

**************************************************************
*    " It is not those who can inflict the most,                   *
*     but those who can suffer the most who                    *
*     will conquer"
       *
*
                *
*                      Terence MacSwiney.                                 *
*
                *
****************************************************************