PETA Statement: Experiment on Paralyzed Mice Is No Breakthrough

For Immediate Release:
January 22, 2021

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA regarding experiments on paralyzed mice at the Ruhr University–Bochum in Germany:

Crushing animals’ spines in laboratories is a sickening and futile exercise that does not advance human health. At Germany’s Ruhr University–Bochum, experimenters cut into the skulls of day-old mice, injected various substances into their brains, and cut open and crushed their spinal cords, rendering them paralyzed, after which the animals were killed and dissected. Disturbing video footage shows the mice attempting to crawl, even though their hind legs had been intentionally paralyzed. Systematic scientific reviews confirm that animals are poor surrogates for humans in studying spinal cord injuries because of physiological differences between species. These experimenters should follow the lead of progressive researchers who now use superior, human-relevant testing methods—like human organoids and organs-on-chips—and that of Fortune 500 food and beverage packaging giant Ball Corporation, which ended its platinum-level financial support of other crude spinal cord injury experiments on animals following a PETA appeal.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.