PETA Haunts the University Of Bristol with Grim Reapers
Ahead of World Day for Animals in Laboratories on the 24th April, “grim reapers” haunted the University of Bristol for tormenting and killing rats.
The ‘Grim Reapers’ are a haunting reminder for Vice Chancellor Brady to drop the cruel forced swim test before he leaves his post at the end of the academic year.
A Living Nightmare For Rats
The forced swim test distresses rats and halts the progress of science.
In the widely discredited test, experimenters place rats, who may or may not have been dosed with a test substance, into inescapable beakers of water. The animals desperately swim in search of an escape. The experimenters assume that the time it takes for the rats to stop swimming and start floating can tell us something about stress-related mental health conditions in humans.
The test is not required by regulators for the development of new antidepressants, and experts from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency have gone so far as to say that it could even hinder progress in finding effective new treatments. University of Bristol are using the test to intentionally stress rats.
Once the test is complete, experimenters kill the rats – either by gassing, blunt force trauma to the head, an overdose of anaesthetic, or breaking their necks – to study their brains.
These profoundly cruel and distressing tests must be dropped in favour of modern, animal-free research methods that might actually help human patients.
Haunt the University Of Bristol And Make Your Voice Heard
The chilling spectacle is part of our campaign urging the University of Bristol to reject this cruel experiment and embrace superior, non-animal research. King’s College London and the University of Adelaide in Australia as well as many major pharmaceutical companies have said they will not use the forced swim test. It’s time for the University of Bristol to follow suit.
Will you join us?
