While a growing number of celebrities have decided to dose themselves in ice cold water for the Ice Bucket Challenge, which is intended to raise awareness of ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, others are choosing to speak out against the social media craze.
Celebrities such as Pamela Anderson, Carey Hart and Shay Mitchell took to social media to criticize the campaign.
"As much as I love the awareness and attention the #IceBucketChallenge is bringing to the ALS foundation...it is important for us to realize why we are making the videos and try to contribute whatever we can," Mitchell captioned a screenshot of her donation confirmation.
"These hilarious and amusing videos need to be followed by action! Visit ALSA.org to make a donation! (If there wasn't a drought in California I would march over to the nearest firehall and make them blast me with a pool full of freezing water...) I nominate all of you to go now and donate whatever you can!!!"
Anderson decided to turn down the challenge, but instead challenged "ALS to stop Animal testing." In a Facebook post written Wednesday Anderson, who is an animal rights activist, explained that the organization is testing cures for a human disease on animals.
"Sorry, I can't bring myself to do your Ice bucket challenge," she wrote. "I enjoy a good dare- It's always good to bring awareness - in fun, creative ways [but] I found that we may not be aligned - in our messages. - I thought Instead I'd challenge ALS to stop animal testing... This massive failure rate is typical for animal experiments, because even though animals feel pain and suffer like we do, their bodies often react completely differently to drugs and diseases."
She added: "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."
Hart also decided to give money toward ALS research instead of pouring water over his head. In an Instagram post, Pink's husband explained that the purpose of the challenge is to raise funds, but he added that it is "extremely creepy and annoying how obsessed people are [with] this ice bucket challenge."
Actor Zachary Quinto also opted out of the challenge, stating that because of the recent drought in California and "desperate need for clean drinking water in developing countries," he would prefer to just donate funds. He did not include how much money he has given.
As of Thursday, the ALS Association had received $41.8 million in donations, as opposed to the $2.1 million raised during the same time frame last year.
