Students Want Universities to Stop Funding Animal Experiments
A Savanta poll commissioned by PETA of more than 1,000 young people, including those currently attending or considering attending university, found that an overwhelming majority believe universities should stop funding animal experimentation.
Most said this would be a factor in their choice of university and affect their opinion of an institution. The results come as universities nationwide – including the University of Bristol, which has been widely condemned for subjecting small animals to the cruel and widely criticised forced swim test – face a decline in student applications.
The Opinion Poll Explained
The poll asked 1,222 people aged 16 to 25 their opinions on animal testing at universities and found that of those with an opinion, 82% feel that universities should divert money currently spent on animal experiments to other projects.* Of the university-age students with a stance on the forced swim test – which involves placing small animals into inescapable beakers of water in which they swim frantically, terrified that they will drown, supposedly to shed light on human mental health conditions – 78% said that their opinion of their chosen university would be negatively affected if they found out the institution conducted the test.
The results couldn’t be clearer: the vast majority of young people oppose using university funds to torture animals in experiments like the forced swim test, and cruelty in laboratories is a major turn-off for them when choosing where to study.
Students Reject Unethical Universities
In the poll, 63% of respondents said that if presented with two equally appealing options, they’d be more likely to choose a university that doesn’t conduct the forced swim test. The University of Bristol is one of the last universities in the UK to continue to conduct the test after the Home Office restricted its use earlier this year and announced its intention to eliminate it entirely.
A lecturer at the University of Bristol commented, “Universities are facing severe financial shortfalls and an extremely competitive environment in which to recruit students. If the University of Bristol continues to conduct the forced swim test after our competitors have rejected it, we are putting our reputation at risk. If we want to ensure that we remain an attractive choice for prospective students, we should be taking their concerns about the cruelty condoned in our labs very seriously.”
What Happens in University Laboratories
The University of Bristol conducts the forced swim test as part of studies of human stress. In the widely criticised test, experimenters induce panic in vulnerable small animals such as rats by putting them into inescapable cylinders of water in which they must swim, terrified that they will drown. Once the test is complete, experimenters kill the animals – either by gassing, blunt-force trauma to the head, an overdose of anaesthetic, or breaking their necks – to study their brains. The scientific community at large, including top universities like King’s College London, have shunned this cruel practice.
The Government Pledged to End Animal Testing
Before the last election, the previous government stated its intention to completely eliminate the forced swim test. The current government has promised to follow through with this policy but has so far failed to provide a timeline. The Labour Party committed in its manifesto to working towards a complete phase-out of animal testing. PETA is calling on the government to use the Research Modernisation Deal – which lays out a strategy to switch from archaic animal experimentation to modern, human-relevant research methods – to take immediate steps towards ending all experiments on animals.
Urge the University of Bristol to Change
PETA is calling on the University of Bristol and other higher education institutions to take heed of the poll results and on the Home Office to expedite the elimination of near-drowning tests in the UK. Join our campaign by sending a message now:
*Of all the young people included in the survey, six in 10 (59%) say they think universities should stop using funding for animal experimentation, with just 13% saying they disagree. One in five (22%) neither agreed nor disagreed.
