Although the Healing Species is an organization that stands on its own, we have partnered with many community-based programs, pre-schools, treatment facilities, and school systems across the state of South Carolina and beyond.

South Carolina Partnerships

Cheri Thompson is a Co-Chair for SC Prevent Child Abuse.
Healing Species founder and director is also co-chair of the Orangeburg County “Community of Character Initiative”.

Healing Species has partnered with Lexington School District One bringing the Healing Species to all fourth grade students within the district.

Healing Species has an unprecedented partnership with the South Carolina Department of Education, thus providing unfettered access to school children.

SC Dept. of Mental Health


Partnerships Outside South Carolina

Dogs Deserve Better

In Defense of Animals

International Institute for Humane Education

North Carolina Animal Resource & Education Services

The Guardian Campaign

Jane Goodall Institute

The Elephant Sanctuary

Healing Species believes, to create a peaceable society, we must look at how we treat weaker sentient species, and what we are doing to animals in "research" labs today is not acceptabe or necessary for a civilized, noble, progressive, advanced society such as ours. We must begin change: "the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." And the beauty is, there are actually "better science" methods available: more accurate, less barbaric, less crude, less cumbersome, more advanced, more efficient, more sophisticated, and more cost-effective methods of conducting research WITHOUT using animals. PCRM and releasechimps.org can show you how! It is do-able in this decade, during our lifetimes! It is time to finally move away from what desperate vivisectors, two hundred years ago, started doing to get an inside look at biology. It is no longer necessary. In fact, worse than that, some scientists suggest, it is killing us. So many people having cancer today is one small indicator that the results of animal research do not work for humans. Animal studies mislead our path. Gruesome research on dogs, for decades, indicated that cigarette smoking does not lead to cancer. Decades later, human or epidemiological studies finally established the link to cancer. Animal research gave the "go ahead" to release poisenous PCB's into our mainstream marketplace because the animal studies showed them harmless. Today we know these chemicals cause cancer, and still remain in our water and environment.

Most of those who advocate animal research make their living from it. It is a billion dollar speciality industry, from the breeding and capture (monkeys) of animals used, to the housing, to the researchers themselves. But animal researchers can evolve, adapt, change, progress, just like every industry has to do-- just like the car industry is having to evolve to alternate energy! Society must evolve!

Please educate yourself, and find out more. It is a matter of life and death, for you and for the animals tortured inside these "no windows, tall gates, and fenced research facilities." Visit our linked web sites! And let your Congressional Representatives know that you want more funding for ICCVAM, a Congressional Committee looking into "Alternative Methods" for research. Also, let your representatives know that you want labs who refuse to "phase in" alternative progress to be "phased out!" Meanwhile, don't purchase products tested on animals, shop cruelty free, contact Healing Species, or www.CaringConsumer.com for a list of companies that no longer test on animlas.

A frequently asked question: If you had to choose between experimenting on a child or an animal, who would you choose? Neither. It is no longer an "either/ or" world. However, even if you did experiment on an animal, there is always that "first human" who takes the drug or gets the treatment, and based on animal studies' track record, I'd prefer that the "first human" come after "alternative research" methods were the first experiments, such as computer assays, cell cultures, virotherapy, in-silico studies, DNA and genetic code studies, tissue banks, and dozens more. These would actually offer more precise research trials over animal studies. Animal studies delay important breakthroughs. Almost half of the substances proving fatal or dangerous in animal studies are actually helpful for humans, according to Jarrod Baily, Ph.D., whose article appeared in Biogenic scientific journal, May 2005.

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

Project R & R

Suggested Reference Sites:

Michigan State University College of Law