University of Texas at Dallas Cancels Cruel Lab Tests

March 2011

In experiments at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), students were drilling holes into rats’ skulls, intentionally damaging the animals’ brains with a toxic chemical, injecting the animals with drugs, forcing them to perform in behavioral experiments, and then killing them and cutting out their brains. PETA contacted the school with information on humane alternatives and, when the school was unresponsive, launched an aggressive campaign that lasted more than a year. UTD documents recently obtained by PETA reveal that the laboratories that were simulating Parkinson’s disease have been removed from the curriculum; this move will save the lives of dozens of rats every year.