Newest Virtual Reality Experience From peta2 Promises Close Encounters at Lamar University

For Immediate Release:
February 29, 2024

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

To encourage empathy for animals suffering in university laboratories, peta2—part of PETA’s youth division—is visiting Lamar University today and tomorrow with Abduction, a unique virtual reality experience landing on college campuses across the country. In this eerie experience, visitors will enter a mysterious truck containing a mobile virtual reality studio. The students will find themselves seemingly stranded in the desert with a couple of fellow humans, abducted by aliens, taken aboard a spaceship, and subjected to a shocking experience, similar to what animals endure in laboratories. They’ll watch as their friends are subjected to painful tests—knowing that they’ll be next.

When:   Thursday, February 29, and Friday, March 1, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.

Where:    F-3 parking lot near Brooks-Shivers Dining Hall, Lamar University, Beaumont

Watch the trailer here. Broadcast-quality footage of the Abduction virtual reality experience is available upon request.

“Many students don’t know that on their own college campuses, frightened and confused animals are being psychologically tormented, mutilated, and killed in laboratories, with no way to escape or even understand what’s happening to them,” says peta2 Senior Director Rachelle Owen. “peta2 is on a mission to open young people’s eyes to this cruelty, help students understand what it feels like, and motivate them to join our call for a switch to superior, non-animal research.”

Studies show that 90% of all basic research—most of which involves animals—fails to lead to treatments for humans, which is why peta2 is pushing universities to pivot to sophisticated, human-relevant research methods.

Abduction—which was filmed in VR180 with assistance from the immersive content creation studio Prosper XR—has stopped at nearly 50 other college campuses over the past year, including Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California–Los Angeles, and the University of Texas at Austin. Abduction won Gold and Audience honors at the 2023 Shorty Impact Awards.

peta2—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—helps young people make meaningful changes for animals in their everyday lives. For more information, please visit peta2.com or follow the group on TikTok or Instagram.