University Animal Rights Group Win First-Ever PETA Student Award

The first-ever PETA UK Student Award was delivered to the University of Exeter’s Animal Welfare Society. The society received the award in recognition of their outstanding work in shedding light on the suffering of nearly 30,000 animals imprisoned and experimented on by the university over a seven-year period. After submitting a Freedom of Information Act request and working with the school’s student newspaper to publish their findings, the group kick-started a petition, which quickly became the largest one on campus, calling on the university to reduce the number of animals used in experiments by switching to animal-free methods.

“We are so incredibly honoured and ecstatic to have been awarded this,” wrote Laura Tapp, president of the University of Exeter’s Animal Welfare Society. “It has been an ongoing struggle to get the university to communicate with us, but finally things seem to be happening, and to be given this award is just amazing and will definitely give us the push that we need to keep fighting and succeeding!”

The society are currently in talks with the university.

We are so proud of the University of Exeter’s Animal Welfare Society. School is about education, and this society are cultivating compassion in their peers by exposing the horrors of animal experimentation occurring right under their noses and teaching their colleagues about animal testing throughout the world. PETA are calling on caring young people everywhere to follow the example set by these students and encourage their universities to work towards eliminating cruel animal experiments.

To learn more about animal testing, visit our Issues page.

To learn how to start an animal rights society at your university, see our guide.

For more on vegan university life, visit V in the UK.