Mouse Fight Club

“The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club.” If, however, the fight club involves forcing mice to battle one another in a stupid and barbaric experiment, you know we’re going to talk about it.

Recently, vivisectors at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (sheep abuse ring a bell?) studied the effect of brawling on chemicals in the brain by creating a fighting tournament for mice. In the experiment, pairs of male mice were provoked into fighting while spectators experimenters watched. The “winning” mice didn’t actually win: After three consecutive victories, they were killed and their brains were cut up.

Making unwilling participants fight in staged matches? Sounds more like Gladiator than Fight Club to me. Or a laboratory version of dogfighting in which our tax dollars fund the fights and the perpetrators are called “Doctor” instead of Michael Vick.

Forcing rodents to rumble is only the tip of the animal-testing iceberg. Anything goes in U.S. laboratories. Tens of millions of mice are burned, poisoned, cut open, and killed in laboratory experiments each year. There are no federal laws protecting mice (or rats, birds, or cold-blooded animals, for that matter) in laboratories, so these animals are often forced to endure excruciating experiments without being given any pain relief at all.

Mice are smart, sensitive, affectionate animals who feel pain and deserve consideration. To learn more about these exceptional animals, watch our video Who Cares About Mice and Rats?

Let’s fight for the rights of mice and take action against cruel animal experiments today!

Written by Amy Skylark Elizabeth