Campaign Updates: Ford Motor Company Slams Brakes on Animal Testing

Update (July 11, 2023): Victory! Following relentless pressure from PETA, actor Lily Tomlin, and more than 125,000 dedicated supporters, we’ve received confirmation that Ford Motor Company is definitively slamming the brakes on its animal testing. Read more here.

PETA Urges Ford at Shareholder Meeting to Be Transparent About Animal Testing

May 11, 2023

At Ford’s annual shareholder meeting, a PETA scientist urged a vote in favor of a PETA resolution that calls on the automaker to disclose all animal testing it conducts or pays for that isn’t required by law. PETA submitted the resolution in November through a supporter who owns Ford stock. The move follows public outrage over Ford’s funding of gruesome crash testing on pigs, which PETA exposed.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, General Motors (GM) announced its upgraded formal policy that now prohibits the automaker from conducting or paying for any animal testing. GM had stopped using animals in car crash tests in 1993 after an 18-month PETA campaign but didn’t expressly prohibit paying others to run tests on animals until it agreed to that change following discussions with PETA in March.

GM does not conduct or commission the use of animals in tests for research purposes or in the development of our vehicles, either directly or indirectly and GM does not fund such tests.

—General Motors

We’re urging Ford to follow suit and align with the growing automotive industry standard that prohibits animal testing.

PETA’s Shareholder Resolution Demands That Ford Slam the Brakes on Animal Testing

November 30, 2022

PETA—which, via a supporter, owns stock in Ford Motor Company for the purpose of addressing shareholders directly about animal testing issues—submitted a shareholder resolution calling on the automaker to issue an annual report disclosing the number and species of animals used and/or euthanized in testing conducted, funded, and/or commissioned by the company, when such tests aren’t explicitly required by law. Given the public backlash against Ford’s funding of a barbaric crash test on pigs, we hope the company will stop using and killing animals in such unreliable and unnecessary tests.

Lily Tomlin Slams Ford Over Crash Tests on Pigs

June 27, 2022

Detroit native Lily Tomlin sent a letter to Ford Motor Company Director Mary Wroten blasting the company for funding a study at the actor’s alma mater, Wayne State University, in which at least 27 pigs were killed and their bodies hung by wires through the spine and hit with a swinging pendulum. Tomlin writes, “I thought those bleak days were in the rearview mirror, and hearing that they are recurring is like suffering from whiplash. … Ford’s apparent return to the dark ages of animal testing reflects poorly on the company, the Motor City, and, frankly, on humanity.”

Ford Claims to Be ‘Working Together to Move Us All Forward’; PETA Disagrees

May 6, 2022

Ford Motor Company’s recent ad takes an evident shot at Tesla founder Elon Musk—but Ford’s no better when it comes to barbaric animal tests. PETA Vice President Shalin Gala released the following statement in response:

Don’t be fooled by this Ford ad taking a not-so-subtle shot at Elon Musk. The car company is no better than the Tesla owner when it comes to horrific animal experiments. Musk has a long and disturbing history of harming animals, including shooting squid, mice, and water bears into outer space as well as implanting a computer chip into a monkey’s skull and coin-size computer chips into pigs’ brains. Likewise, Ford recently funded an experiment that involved obtaining 27 pigs, killing them, and then smashing pendulums into the animal cadavers while they were suspended in the air by wires through their spines—an obvious violation of the company’s 2009 policy agreement not to use animals. Ford’s ad can claim that its employees are “working together to move us all forward,” but that doesn’t change the fact that the company is stuck in the past with regard to animal testing.