Chilling Virtual Reality Experience From peta2 Promises Alien Encounters at the University of Montana

For Immediate Release:
April 3, 2025

Contact:
Brandi Pharris 202-483-7382

Coming to the University of Montana next week is peta2’s award-winning virtual reality experience, Abduction, which is touring the country to encourage empathy for animals caged in laboratories on university campuses.

In this eerie experience, visitors will enter a mysterious truck containing a mobile virtual reality studio and find themselves seemingly stranded with a couple of fellow humans in the desert, only to be abducted by aliens, taken aboard a spaceship, and subjected to a shocking experience that mirrors what other species endure in laboratories. They’ll watch as their friends are subjected to painful tests—knowing that they’ll be next.

When:       Monday,April 7 – Wednesday, April 9, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. each day

Where:     The Oval at the University of Montana, 32 Campus Drive, Missoula

Watch the trailer here.

At the University of Montana, experimenters injected mice with fentanyl and a fentanyl vaccine before placing them on a 129-degree hotplate to see how long it would take the drugged mice to lift their burning paws. In another test, experimenters induced severe allergies in mice by injecting them with immune-irritating chemicals, forced tubes down their throats, and used a chemical to simulate asthma attacks. Others captured wild tadpoles from wetlands and confined them in saltwater-filled containers no bigger than a soda bottle, which experimenters shook violently for up to five minutes. Many died from salt poisoning, while the rest were killed.

“Many students don’t know that on their own college campuses, frightened and confused animals are psychologically tormented, mutilated, and killed in laboratories with no way to escape or even understand what’s happening to them,” says PETA Associate Director of Innovation and Execution Kenneth Montville. “peta2 is a trailblazer in using immersive VR experiences to open young people’s eyes to this cruelty, help them understand what it feels like, and motivate them to join our call for a switch to superior, non-animal research.”

Studies show that 90% of all basic research—most of which involves animals—fails to lead to treatments for humans. That’s why peta2 is pushing universities to prove their supposed commitment to “replacing, reducing, and refining” the use of animals in experiments.

Since its debut, Abduction has traveled from coast to coast, visiting more than 50 colleges and universities, including Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California–Los Angeles, and the University of Texas at Austin. Abduction was filmed in VR180 with assistance from the immersive content creation studio Prosper XR, won “Gold” and “Audience” honors in the 2023 Shorty Impact Awards, and was a nominee for the 2024 Webby Awards.

peta2—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers young people positive, empowering actions to help animals. For more information, please visit peta2.com or follow peta2 on TikTok or Instagram.