Celebrity

Pamela Anderson Declines Ice Bucket Challenge, Citing ALS Animal Testing

The actress and animal-rights advocate takes issue with experiments reportedly funded by the group

Updated on February 23, 2022 04:39 PM

Plenty of celebrities have taken the Ice Bucket Challenge, benefitting the ALS Association. But Pamela Anderson won’t be one of them.

While saying she “enjoys a good dare,” and acknowledging the creativity of the charity campaign, the actress and longtime animal-rights advocate says she can’t support an organization that does testing on animals.

“Mice had holes drilled into their skulls, were inflicted with crippling illnesses, and were forced to run on an inclined treadmill until they collapsed from exhaustion. Monkeys had chemicals injected into their brains and backs and were later killed and dissected,” the former Baywatch star, 47, writes on Facebook, citing recent tests reportedly funded by the group.

Such experiments, she claims, have led to just one ALS treatment that works in humans – and only marginally well.

“Trying to cure human diseases by relying on outdated and ineffective animal experiments isn’t only cruel – it’s a grave disservice to people who desperately need cures,” Anderson writes.

And so, she issues a different kind of challenge to friends and fans.

She writes: “Please, help scientists make real progress toward treating and curing human diseases by visiting HumaneSeal.org to find and support charities that never harm animals and which pour their time and resources into advanced, promising, human-relevant cures.”