PETA Challenges University of Michigan’s Twisted Tests on Mice in New TV Spot

Nongraphic Pixar-Style Ad Illustrates World From Mouse’s Point of View

For Immediate Release:
October 29, 2019

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Because 52 violations related to the treatment of mice and rats were reported, as required by law, by the University of Michigan between January 2015 and April 2017—including an incident in which a rat who hadn’t been euthanized properly was found dead in a cooler after chewing through a bag—PETA is running an eye-opening new ad on local television stations.

The nongraphic spot—made in partnership with 160over90, an Endeavor company—features an adorable cartoon mouse mixing chemicals in his laboratory classroom in the forest and proclaims, “Animals experimenting are cute. Experimenting on animals isn’t.” It ran on WMYD during the 7 a.m. Action News today, will run during the 10 p.m. Action News on Wednesday and on WXYZ during the 5 p.m. Action News on Thursday.

“PETA’s ad will remind people that mice are thinking, feeling beings who deserve to live and don’t belong to humans to be abused and killed,” says PETA Vice President Dr. Alka Chandna. “Viewers will see quickly that the University of Michigan has robbed animals of everything that’s natural and important to them so that experimenters can torment them in archaic, unreliable tests.”

The University of Michigan received more than $552 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health in 2018, nearly half of which is estimated to have been used to fund experiments on animals. Federal records reveal numerous incidents of neglect and incompetence in the university’s laboratories, including one in which painful tumors in mice weren’t adequately monitored and were left to develop past allowable limits. Several mice died of dehydration after a water system malfunctioned and no one noticed, and numerous mice and rats lost their lives after experimenters failed to follow procedures used to prevent contamination during experimental surgeries.

Studies show that 90% of basic research—most of which involves experiments on animals—doesn’t lead to treatments for humans. Government officials also admit that 95% of all new drugs that test safe and effective on animals fail in human trials, either because they simply don’t work or because they cause adverse effects.

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