THESE Companies Won’t Pay for Tests That Kill Mice and Unborn Monkeys

Victory! Kwik Trip Stops Funding Experiments That Poison Monkeys and Kill Mice

Published November 13, 2024 by Amanda Hays. Last Updated August 11, 2026.

3 min read

Update (August 10, 2026): Victory! After hearing from PETA, Kwik Trip—one of the largest privately held convenience store chains in the U.S., with more than 900 stores across the Midwest—has stopped the University of Wisconsin–Madison Food Research Institute from using the company’s sponsorship money to fund cruel and pointless experiments on animals.

PETA informed Kwik Trip that the University of Wisconsin–Madison Food Research Institute could use the company’s donations to pay for tests in which experimenters force-feed mice parasite-infested feces, poison pregnant monkeys and kill their unborn babies, and conduct other deadly experiments.

By taking action, Kwik Trip joins a growing list of food and beverage companies that have refused to let their sponsorship dollars bankroll the institute’s tests on animals. Now, Wegmans Food Market must follow suit. Help save more animals abused in pointless food experiments by urging other companies to mandate that the money they contribute to the Food Research Institute be restricted to only non-animal research.

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Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Campbell’s, and Others Already Took Action

After hearing from PETA, The Coca-Cola Company ended its sponsorship of the Food Research Institute entirely. Other major food and beverage companies, including PepsiCo, Inc., and Campbell Soup Company, restricted their donations so that not another cent of their money could be used to fund tests on animals there.

The Experiments That These Companies Are No Longer Funding

Despite the widespread availability of superior, non-animal research methods, experimenters funded by the Food Research Institute have conducted numerous curiosity-driven experiments on animals, including:

Force-feeding pregnant monkeys whipping cream contaminated with listeria bacteria, killing some of their fetuses. Experimenters then cut the mothers open, removed their dead babies, and dissected their bodies.
Repeatedly force-feeding bacteria to mice, suffocating them to death, and dissecting them.
Force-feeding mice parasite-infested feces as part of gastrointestinal disease experiments.
Injecting mice with botulinum bacteria and waiting for them to die from the toxin.

The Food Research Institute Created an Animal-Free Funding Option

Previously, the Food Research Institute didn’t allow companies to choose how their money was spent. We successfully pushed it to change that policy. Now, corporate sponsors can opt out of funding cruelty, ensuring the institute has less cash to waste on pointless experiments and preventing countless animals from suffering in ridiculously unscientific experiments that are irrelevant to human health.

After hearing from PETA and food and beverage companies that we convinced to avoid animal testing, the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Food Research Institute created a new fund that allows corporate sponsors to support research that is entirely animal-free.

The fund, titled the “Food Research Institute Programmatic (Non-animal) Support Fund,” has a stated purpose to “support research that does not involve animal testing and general department operations at the Food Research Institute.” It will boost modern, non-animal research while helping sponsors easily prevent their donations from paying for experimenters to poison, slice open, and kill animals in cruel and pointless tests.

Companies That Have Done the Right Thing

PETA is urging General Mills, Kraft Heinz, Wegmans Food Market, and other sponsors to get in line and join these compassionate companies by mandating that the money that they contribute to the Food Research Institute be restricted to only non-animal research. After hearing from us, other companies have already made that decision or stopped funding the institute altogether. Here’s the growing list:

Tell Wegmans to follow suit!