ASU Students to Deliver 1,500 Petition Signatures Demanding an End to Classroom Experiments on Animals

STAAR, peta2 Challenge University's Executive Vice President to Public Debate 

For Immediate Release:
January 26, 2010

Contact:
Justin Goodman 757-622-7382

Tempe, Ariz. -- With support from peta2--PETA's youth division--members of the Arizona State University (ASU) campus group Students Taking Action for Animal Rights (STAAR) will deliver more than 1,500 petition signatures Wednesday demanding an end to classroom experiments on animals at the school. The petition--which urges administrators to replace cruel and deadly experiments on animals in physiology classes with modern, non-animal learning tools that have proved to be educationally superior--will be delivered to Dr. Elizabeth D. Capaldi, the university's executive vice president and provost: 

When:    Wednesday, January 27, 3:30 p.m.                                              

Where:   ASU campus, Fulton Center, 300 E. University Dr., Ste. 420, Tempe

Included with the signatures will be a letter from peta2 asking that Capaldi or another university official or faculty member participate in a public debate with a representative of PETA on the ethics and merits of animal experimentation. The letter gives Capaldi until February 1 to respond. Otherwise, peta2 will make its case in an on-campus presentation without representation from the university's administration or faculty.

"Judging by the overwhelming response to our petition and the outrage expressed by students over classroom experiments on animals, this debate is something that ASU students are eager to have," says STAAR spokesperson Kirby Mauro.

"Modern, reliable, and humane methods are available for every animal experiment currently conducted in ASU's physiology classes," says peta2 Senior College Campaign Coordinator Ryan Huling. "Dr. Capaldi should be the first person to want to learn more about these superior teaching methods."

In the experiments, students inject various drugs into rabbits who have had holes cut into their necks. The rabbits are killed after the experiment is over. Physiology students also destroy frogs' brains by sticking a pin through the animals' skulls. The frogs are then dissected while their hearts are still beating. In addition, baby rats are killed so that their uteruses and small intestines can be removed for experiments, and female mice are killed for their embryos, which are taken for dissection.

The letter from peta2 to Dr. Elizabeth D. Capaldi, Arizona State University's executive vice president and provost, is available upon request. For more information, please visit peta2.com.