Ethics into Action by Peter Singer

Author:Peter Singer [Singer, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2019-03-12T16:00:00+00:00

Making History

Shelley organized a major press conference at the Plaza Hotel, at which Bergerac would hand over the initial check to a representativeof the university. The day of the press conference, December 23, 1980, was cold and snowy, and Shelley feared that no members of the press would show up. He needn’t have worried: About 200 journalists and television crews arrived to hear Bergerac say that finding an alternative to animal testing was a priority for Revlon and that the grant was “proof of Revlon’s social conscience.”48 The words would have brought a smile to Henry’s face, but he was not present. Revlon had not invited him, and he tactfully accepted his exclusion from the culmination of his campaign. The next part of Bergerac’s speech was the result of a suggestion Henry had made. It served as a starting point for Henry’s next task and offered an elegant way for Revlon to get even with the other cosmetic companies that had remained aloof when Revlon was under attack:

Draize is not a Revlon problem, it is a problem shared by all personal care product companies. I am, therefore, calling on such companies to join us as full partners in this research program. I know that the Chief Executives of Avon, Bristol-Myers, Elizabeth Arden, Gillette, Johnson & Johnson, Estée Lauder, L’Oréal, Max Factor, Maybelline, Noxell and Procter & Gamble share our concern for consumer safety and I trust they will participate with us.49

For Shelley it was a memorable day:

The attitude of the company was . . . a great pride in what we were doing. Everybody in our company felt good when they went home that night because their kids would no longer look at them cockeyed as being someone who does untoward things to rabbits.50

The Coalition to Stop Draize Rabbit Blinding Tests issued its own news release. Journalists who picked it up expecting a triumphant proclamation of a famous animal rights victory over a major corporation were surprised to find themselves reading a statement that, from first to last, congratulated Revlon for its “initiative,” its “pioneering step,” and its “historic breakthrough.” The word “victory” was absent, as was any suggestion that Revlon’s decision was a response to threats or pressure of any kind:

We congratulate Revlon and Rockefeller University for making history. This is the first major linkup of a giant corporation with a leading research center to replace crude animal tests with imaginative, humane science. . . . This can be the beginning of ending the suffering of tens of millions of live animals for safety testing.51

The statement closed by expressing the hope that “by all of us pulling together . . . the promise of this historic opening will be realized” and by thanking Michel Bergerac, Roger Shelley, and the key figures at Rockefeller University “for constructing a viable program with speed and sensitivity.”

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