Video: Participants Get Inked in the Ear to Honor Dogs Killed for Experiments

For Immediate Release:
March 29, 2023

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

What makes a person get a tattoo in their ear? A new PETA video  shows pop-up participants explaining why they got a set of paw prints inked onto such a sensitive area: to honor dogs used in experiments who commonly don’t even have names, just a serial number tattooed in their ear in order to identify them. Each tattoo features paw prints belonging to Samson, who was one of 4,000 beagles rescued from laboratory supplier Envigo, which closed down following a PETA undercover investigation. Today, more than 60,000 other dogs in the U.S. are destined to be used and killed for laboratory experiments.

Participant Daniella Ramadei reveals, “I was trying to get myself in the headspace of being in a cage and feeling this sharpness all of a sudden tear into your ear and the sound vibrating through your body. It’s horrifying. I wanted to cry. It allows me to not only empathize with the animal but to tell others what it feels like.”

PETA notes that when Samson was released from Envigo, he needed urgent care for an ear infection, blood in his urine, and over a dozen diseased teeth—but he still enjoyed his first plush bed, his first selection of toys, and his first moments of peace and quiet. He’s still traumatized and sometimes wakes up barking from vivid dreams, but he’s learning how to play with other dogs, sniff new smells, observe squirrels and birds, and binge-watch TV shows on the sofa as a beloved member of his new family.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.