Victory! National Watermelon Board Stops Bankrolling Animal Tests After Push From PETA
For Immediate Release:
December 19, 2024
Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382
After hearing from PETA and more than 18,000 PETA supporters, including Emmy Award-winning journalist María Celeste Arrarás, the National Watermelon Promotion Board has announced an official public policy against funding pointless and deadly experiments on animals, stating: “The National Watermelon Promotion Board (NWPB) funds research studies that are based on sound science …. [A]nimal studies … are not acceptable.”
Experimenters funded by the federally-appointed watermelon board tormented and killed at least 450 mice and rats in painful tests to promote dubious human health claims about watermelons, which humans have safely eaten for thousands of years. Experimenters injected mice with cancer cells, both starved and force-fed them, and induced colitis before killing the animals, sometimes by breaking their necks and then dissecting them.
“No animal needs to die in a laboratory to sell watermelons, and PETA thanks the National Watermelon Promotion Board for adopting a public policy that spares tiny, terrified animals from barbaric tests,” says PETA Vice President Shalin Gala. “PETA urges other agricultural boards to drop animal testing and instead use superior, human-relevant research.”
PETA first contacted the watermelon board and other similar research and promotion boards in 2020 about funding cruel tests on animals for agricultural products. PETA’s campaign against the watermelon board officially kicked off earlier this month. It included a letter sent by Arrarás, who called the experiments on animals a “cocktail of absurdity” and urged the board to “take a step forward by adopting a policy that clearly prohibits funding such cruel and ridiculous tests.”
The National Watermelon Promotion Board joins the Hass Avocado Board, the National Mango Board, and dozens of major food and beverage manufacturers—including Barilla, Heineken, and Unilever—that have also established policies against animal testing after hearing from PETA.
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 PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
