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Tell New Zealand Lab to Stop Shooting Pigs!
Photos taken by ESR experimenters, published in the International Journal of Legal Medicine, in which live pigs are being crudely shot at close range in blood spatter experiments for which there are humane non-animal methods available.
PETA recently discovered that experimenters at the New Zealand government's Institute of Environmental Science and Research, in collaboration with personnel from the University of Auckland and the University of Otago, have been conducting bloodstain-pattern experiments in which live pigs are tied down and shot in the head—in some cases, repeatedly and at close range—just to see how the blood spatters from the bullet wound.
We immediately wrote to the institutions to demand that they end these archaic and cruel experiments, and after hearing from PETA about the inapplicability of these experiments to humans and the availability of superior non-animal research methods, the Institute of Environmental Science and Research announced that it will not be pursuing these experiments in the future. After PETA publicized the case, the University of Otago said the same.
PETA is urging the University of Auckland to join them and use only non-animal research methods like sophisticated manikins and computer models, which can better simulate the effects of gunshot wounds and provide human-relevant data to help solve gun-related crimes. It makes no sense for these experimenters to kill living beings in their efforts to help solve killings, especially when researchers have stated that "the history of forensic sciences has provided us with much evidence of the inapplicability of data obtained from studies performed on animal models."
Please write to university officials and ask them to stop killing animals in bloodstain-pattern experiments! Click Here To Help!
Victoria’s Dirty Secret: Paying for Cruel Tests on Animals in China.
Victoria has a new little secret: She's no "angel" for animals. After years of upholding its policy never to test on animals, the company has let down compassionate consumers everywhere by choosing profits over principles. Victoria's Secret has confirmed to PETA that it will begin selling in China—and that means it will be required to pay for cruel and archaic tests on animals. Although the company, owned by L Brands, Inc., fully understands the Chinese government's requirements for tests on animals for cosmetics, it has chosen to enter this market anyway. Victoria's Secret has been removed from PETA's list of companies that don't test on animals and has been placed on our list of companies that do test on animals. (However, L Brands' other companies, including Bath & Body Works, Henri Bendel, and La Senza, are not expanding into China and remain committed to their cruelty-free policies.)
Since PETA first exposed that some formerly cruelty-free companies were paying for tests on animals in order to sell their products in China, tens of thousands of compassionate consumers have spoken out and expressed their outrage. Fortunately, PETA has received pledges from a number of companies—including The Body Shop, Urban Decay, NYX Cosmetics, Yes To Inc., Jack Black, Paula's Choice, 100% Pure, Jane Iredale, and others—that they will never sell in China while animal tests are required. We've also worked to convince companies selling in China to withdraw from that market until tests on animals are no longer required. These companies include John Paul Mitchell Systems, Dermalogica, Pangea Organics, Nature's Gate, Juice Beauty, and LOGOCOS Naturkosmetik AG.
Please tell Victoria's Secret that cruelty isn't sexy and that you won't buy its products until the company is 100 percent cruelty-free again. Click Here To Help!
Stop Animal Fighting Experiments at Northeastern University!
For nearly two decades, experimenters from the Department of Psychology at Northeastern University in Boston have been injecting hamsters with anabolic-androgenic steroids and other aggression-promoting drugs and then forcing them to fight each other. Since 1996, the experimenters have injected hundreds of animals with steroids, cocaine, and other substances, sometimes drilling into their skulls and injecting the drugs straight into their brains.
After a hamster is drugged and becomes hyper-aggressive, experimenters put a hamster who has not been injected with drugs into the drugged hamster's cage, exploiting the animals' natural tendencies to be solitary and territorial in order to force them to be aggressive in these contrived scenarios. Experimenters watch, videotape, and even "score" the ensuing fight, rating the hamsters on how many times they bite, attack, lunge at, and trap the other animal. They then declare a "winner" and a "loser."
Like a twisted sports-style tournament, they force some of the animals to fight multiple times against different opponents as they advance with each "win." Other animals are killed and then have their brains dissected. For these macabre animal-fighting experiments, the team received more than $306,000 in taxpayer money from the National Institutes of Health in 2015 alone, and more than $3 million since 1996.
These violent experiments are not only cruel but appear to violate Massachusetts state laws against cruelty to animals and animal fighting. PETA is calling on the Massachusetts attorney general to end these experiments and if appropriate press charges against those responsible
Please join PETA's efforts by contacting Northeastern University officials and urging them to put an immediate stop to these animal fighting experiments. Click Here To Help!
Thanks for all you do to help animals.
