PETA US and PETA Australia are calling for swift and immediate consequences after experimenters at an Australian university tied weights around female rats’ necks and strangled them in a gruesome and pointless attempt at studying domestic violence in humans.

The cruel test was first exposed by Animal-Free Science Advocacy and took place at Melbourne’s Monash University.

PETA entity scientists are pushing the journal that published the experiment to retract the paper. PETA US and PETA Australia are also urging the university that conducted the test and asking the government agency that bankrolled it to prohibit all strangulation and traumatic brain injury experiments on animals, and also to fully transition away from animal testing by adopting PETA US’s Research Modernization Now strategic roadmap. Additionally, we’re calling on officials to launch a cruelty-to-animals investigation, and pursue relevant disciplinary actions, regarding the experimenters’ apparent violation of the Australian standards for replacing the use of animals in tests with non-animal methods.

Strangled to Near-Death

Monash experimenters inflicted brain damage on female rats and then strangled them by attaching heavy weights to their tiny heads to simulate the traumatic injuries endured by human victims of domestic violence.

Despite the relentless pain and suffering caused by the test, experimenters did not provide painkillers to the rats before subjecting them to traumatic brain injuries. Some animals had to be resuscitated after losing consciousness during strangulation.

The pointless experiment cannot begin to accurately mimic the complexity of traumas that human victims experience after domestic violence. Advanced non-animal methods, such as imaging and computer models, could have been used to allow researchers to effectively study brain injuries without harming animals.

Rats and humans have vastly different brain structures, and while animals can experience stress, they don’t process and manifest trauma in comparable ways. By tormenting animals instead of pursuing human-relevant research methods, this experiment on rats succeeded only in diverting resources away from modern, animal-free research that could help domestic abuse victims. 

What You Can Do

Please take action to support the Research Modernization Now strategic roadmap by urging the government and national research councils to implement a policy that mandates an end to animal experimentation and provides a clear strategy and timeline for achieving this goal.