PETA's Laboratory Investigations Department (LID) learned about a University of California-Irvine neurosciences course in which 200 rats per year were being killed after holes were drilled into their skulls and their brains were damaged in crude classroom experiments. We sent a letter to the school to urge its administrators to end the cruel procedures, and we included information on modern, humane, and educationally superior simulators. We also filed a complaint with the university's animal care committee and asked our members and supporters to urge the school to drop the cruel laboratories. After evaluating the information we provided and reviewing the course, the school announced that it has completely replaced the use of animals in these experiments with sophisticated computer simulations.
2009 - PETA Helps Save 4.5 Million Animals
After learning that a massive animal testing program in Europe was going to cause even more animal suffering as a result of duplicative testing, PETA initiated a joint letter to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), which oversees the program, asking it to intervene. Now, in a huge victory for animals, ECHA has announced a process that will spare as many as 4,410,000 animals from cruel tests.
2009 - Heartland Regional Medical Center Ends Cruel Cats Labs, Purchases Manikins
After PETA's Laboratory Investigations Division learned that cats were having hard plastic tubes repeatedly forced down their throats in cruel intubation training exercises at Heartland Regional Medical Center (HRMC) in St. Joseph, Missouri, we sent a letter to the director of the course detailing how animals suffer in these procedures and explaining that modern non-animal simulation methods are educationally superior. We filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and asked our members and supporters to contact the hospital and encourage its administrators to end the use of cats for these training sessions. HRMC has announced that it has ended the use of cats in its Pediatric Advanced Life Support course and replaced them with state-of-the-art human patient simulators.
2009 - Ad Agency BBDO Worldwide to Leave Great Apes Out of Ads
PETA met with executives at BBDO Worldwide, the second largest ad agency network in the world, to alert them to the abuse that great apes endure when they are used for advertising. After learning about the cruelty, BBDO Worldwide agreed never to use great apes in any future ad campaigns.
2009 - Ad Agency EuroRSCG Pledges to Leave Great Apes Out of Ads
After PETA provided EuroRSCG with information about the abuse that is suffered by great apes who are forced into the entertainment industry, the agency immediately pledged never to use great apes in its advertising campaigns.
