Motor Vehicle Industry Group Shifts Away From Animal Testing After PETA Push

For Immediate Release:
October 20, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

PETA has secured an assurance from a major research group backed by the motor vehicle industry that it has “no plans to fund animal studies for the foreseeable future,” marking a shift away from animal testing and potentially saving the lives of thousands of animals.

The announcement from the Boston-based Health Effects Institute (HEI) follows a letter from PETA scientists urging it to end its long history of funding air pollution experiments on animals and instead adopt state-of-the-art, non-animal research methods.

The Health Effects Institute is a non-profit organization that studies the effects of air pollution. It is largely funded by the global automotive industry. This move by HEI is in line with the overall governmental shift away from animal experimentation during the current presidential administration.

Since its establishment in 1980, HEI has funded numerous experiments on dogs, guinea pigs, hamsters, mice, monkeys, rabbits, and rats. In one study, experimenters inserted a tube down dogs’ windpipes, pumped air pollution particles into the tube, and surgically blocked their arteries to compromise their heart functions. Experiments also included repeatedly forcing mice to inhale a known carcinogen, puncturing their hearts, killing, and dissecting them, and repeatedly injecting guinea pigs with a substance that worsens inflammation, cutting them open and inserting tubes and wires into their chests, taking their blood, killing, and dissecting them, among other wasteful tests.

“We’re breathing easier knowing that the Health Effects Institute is not planning on poisoning, cutting up, and killing animals in air pollution experiments,” says PETA Vice President Shalin Gala. “No animals need to suffer in laboratories to protect the public.”

In 1991, PETA exposed General Motors’ crash tests involving live pigs and baboons. As a result, the automaker ended all such tests, leading to the end of crash tests on animals worldwide.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.