Cool it! While Hollywood has accepted the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in droves, uploading often-creative, LOL videos and nominating each other, Pamela Anderson and Carey Hart took to their social media pages to criticize the viral campaign, meant to raise funds for Lou Gehrig’s disease research.
On Wednesday Aug. 20, Anderson, a longtime supporter of animal rights, posted a Facebook message criticizing ALS researchers for their research practices.
“Sorry, I can’t bring myself to do your Ice bucket challenge,” the post began. “I enjoy a good dare, It’s always good to bring awareness – in fun, creative ways, I don’t want to take away from that. I thought instead, I’d challenge ALS to stop animal testing.”
The former Baywatch star, 47, then cited claims describing how animals are mistreated during medical experiments.
“Recent experiments funded by the ALS Association, 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.”
Anderson backed her stance with a FDA statistic stating that 92 out of 100 drugs that succeed in animal trials fail once in the human trials.
“Trying to cure human diseases by relying on outdated and ineffective animal experiments isn’t only cruel—it’s a grave disservice to people who desperately need cures,” she wrote.
She concluded her post by urging people to “find and support charities that never harm animals.”
The next morning, on Thursday, Aug. 21, Hart similarly railed against those who have hopped on the ice bucket bandwagon.
“I went the contribution route. I figure ALS would rather have my money than see me wet,” Pink’s husband captioned a screenshot of his donation receipt to ALS. “I’ll put the water towards washing my bike later!!”
The motocross pro, 39, also slammed those who have opted to take part in the campaign instead of giving funds on his Twitter page.
“It’s extremely creepy and annoying how obsessed people are w/ this ice bucket challenge. The purposes is 2 raise money for an awful disease.”
“If you are that into seeing people dump buckets of ice water over their heads, go find a wet t shirt contest,” read his last post. “Time to find a hobby, people.”
As of Thursday, Aug. 21, the ALS Association has amassed over $41.8 million in donations, as opposed to the $2.1 million raised during the same time frame in 2013 (from July 29 to Aug. 21). According to a press release, the donations have come from current donors as well as 739,275 new donors to join the cause.
