Victory! National Mango Board Stops Bankrolling Animal Tests After Push From PETA

For Immediate Release:
August 13, 2024

In another big win for animals, a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)–appointed mango research and promotion board announced an official public policy against funding pointless and deadly experiments on animals after hearing from PETA and more than 135,000 of our supporters.

“The National Mango Board (NMB) does not fund research studies involving animals; it has not done so since 2015 and has no plans to do so in the future,” the announcement on its website reads.

Experimenters funded by the board had tormented and killed at least 160 mice and rats in painful tests to promote dubious human health claims about mangoes, which humans have safely eaten for thousands of years. These tests included injecting mice with cancer cells, starving them, and force-feeding them and inducing colitis in rats. At the end of the experiments, the animals were killed and dissected.

“No animal needs to die in a laboratory to sell mangoes, and PETA thanks the National Mango Board for adopting this history-making public policy,” says PETA Vice President Shalin Gala. “PETA urges other agricultural boards to drop animal testing and to instead use superior, human-relevant research.”

In 2017, PETA began contacting the mango board and other similar research and promotion boards about their funding of cruel animal tests for agricultural products. The campaign against the mango board included letters to the board’s leadership; complaints to the U.S. secretary of agriculture from PETA, U.S. Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.), and national advocacy groups for Black and other underserved minority farmers; a petition for rulemaking to the USDA; the submission of formal comments regarding the 2023 Farm Bill; an ad blitz that included a digital mobile billboard and newspaper and social media ads; and the delivery of a “Mice Are Nice” mug and an Empathy Kit.

After discussions with PETA, the Hass Avocado Board and dozens of major food and beverage manufacturers—including Barilla, Heineken, and Unilever—have also established policies against animal testing.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.