Incoming Utah State University President Should Ban Tests on Rats in Undergrad Course: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
February 10, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Logan, Utah –

Please see the following statement from PETA Vice President Shalin Gala regarding the announcement that Utah State University President Elizabeth Cantwell is stepping down from her post by April 1:

A changing of the guard may be just what’s needed to usher in a new era of compassion at Utah State University. PETA is hopeful the incoming university leadership will be more receptive to sound and ethical scientific exploration and finally ban the pointless and cruel use of rats in the school’s Advanced Analysis of Behavior (PSY 3400) course.

The undergraduate class requires students to place rats in stressful conditions inside barren metal boxes, where they’re blasted with random bursts of bright light while being trained to push a lever to receive food pellets, supposedly to teach students about “fundamental behavioral processes under laboratory conditions” in humans and other animals. It’s cruel and unnecessary torment, and the new university president should ban it immediately and switch to more effective, non-animal methods that peer institutions are already using.

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.