UC Irvine Drops Cruel Rat Lab

October 2009

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.