PETA Exhibit Exposes Violent History of Animal Experiments, Including at Lovelace Biomedical
For Immediate Release:
March 1, 2023
Contact:
Amanda Hays 202-483-7382
PETA is set to unveil its eye-opening exhibit “Without Consent,” which explores the troubled history of experiments on nonconsenting animals. The installation challenges institutions, including Lovelace Biomedical in Albuquerque, to rethink this exploitative, expensive, cruel, and archaic concept of science.
Modeled after the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, “Without Consent” will be on display locally for four days as part of a national tour. It features 24 panels with descriptions and photographs of nearly 200 animal experiments conducted at U.S. institutions from the 1920s through today. An interactive virtual exhibit is also available here.
When: March 8–11, 12 noon–4 p.m.
Where: Tiguex Park (at the intersection of Mountain Road N.W. and 18th Street N.W.), Albuquerque
“‘Without Consent’” tells the true stories of animals harmed and killed in experiments that they did not and could not consent to,” says Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “Humans are only one animal species among many. Having the power to exploit the others does not give us the right to do so.”
The 110 million animals killed every year in U.S. laboratories are individuals who experience pain and fear, yet they’re burned, force-fed chemicals, sickened with disease, and robbed of their babies. Experimenters at Lovelace forced mice to inhale gasoline and diesel engine exhaust for 1,260 hours before killing them by draining them of blood and cutting out their lungs. Other experimenters implanted catheters in the arteries of 68 pigs, caused traumatic brain injuries, and removed 40% of their blood volume.
Lovelace’s long and wretched history of experiments on animals doesn’t stop there. Last year, PETA filed a complaint with the National Institutes of Health after the company confined 39 beagles in nearly 90-degree heat for six hours, causing them discomfort and stress. In 2018, Lovelace came under fire after it was revealed that Volkswagen had paid the company to lock monkeys into chambers and force them to inhale diesel fumes emitted from an old pickup truck and a Volkswagen Beetle for four hours. In 2011, Lovelace was cited by U.S. authorities for six violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act—including the strangulation death of a monkey who got caught on an experimental jacket and the escape of an infant monkey—and fined $21,750.
“Without Consent” also makes the point that vulnerable humans—including orphans in tuberculosis and psychological experiments, immigrant women in gynecological surgeries, soldiers in LSD and poison gas tests, and impoverished Black men in syphilis experiments—were exploited in experiments. Just as society now understands that these experiments were wrong, “Without Consent” shows we need to let a similar moral awakening guide our conduct today by extending consideration to other nonconsenting sentient beings who suffer and die in experiments from floor-cleaner product tests to mother-infant separation studies.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
