Action Alerts

Ringing in the ear, known as tinnitus, has been difficult to treat because it’s hard to study and the causes are unknown. But animal experiments are definitely the wrong way to go.

Laurentian University, in Toronto, Canada, is about to make innocent animals pay the price for their financial problems. Because of staggering debt, the University is shutting down its animal research lab and plans to kill, within days, 200 mice and rats without any attempts whatsoever at placing them in adoptive homes.

Most will never have a name, but they are no different from other animals we know. They need love and companionship but spend their lives in isolation. The rare touch from a human hand is likely to come with pain, callousness and death.

This is the ugly reality for animals used in experiments that we have the power to change.

CAARE's report, From Trauma to Treatment, details the sweeping failure of PTSD experiments on animals to help patients, in contrast to existing, effective treatments and modalities for human-based research.

Yet despite the existence of highly successful therapies to treat PTSD, only 10% of patients currently receive them.

Rather than bridge this gap in access to care, millions of government dollars continue to fund appalling experiments that intentionally traumatize animals, claiming to study PTSD.

History is in the making with the introduction of the Humane Research and Testing Act of 2020 (H.R. 8633). This bipartisan bill, introduced by Representatives Alcee Hastings (D-FL) and Vern Buchanan (R-FL), will enact the boldest steps ever to reduce the use of animals in experiments by establishing the National Center for Alternatives to Animals in Research and Testing (Center) under the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

This is not the way to help PTSD patients.

At Washington State University, scientists are putting animals through hell, claiming to study PTSD.

CAARE has revealed that 3-month old rats are “traumatized” through a series of cruel procedures that last days. To start, they are immobilized in plastic devices for hours, then placed in chambers where they receive repeated electrical shocks. After that they are forced to swim in cold water for 20 minutes before being bombarded by alcohol fumes until they lose consciousness.

At least ten different vaccine candidates for COVID-19 have already advanced to human clinical trials, yet absurdly, the nation’s seven primate research centers have banded together to push a desperate scheme to subject several hundred monkeys to a cruel and unnecessary vaccine comparison study, which will cost tax-payers an estimated $10 million.

Please send a polite letter to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to let them know you strongly reject this needless plan to infect monkeys with COVID-19.

CAARE’s investigative team has revealed that Boston Children’s Hospital is killing mice and rats to develop an enhanced version of botulinum toxin, a product already in widespread use for cosmetic and medical use. More commonly recognized by one of its commercial names (Botox), botulinum toxin has a number of medical uses, including relief from migraines and nerve-related disorders. 

Please note: Congress requires that all signers provide a current U.S. address. Those outside the U.S. can sign a similar letter here.

As shutdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic extend indefinitely, universities and private laboratories are dealing with ongoing staff shortages and delayed research by killing thousands upon thousands of animals, mostly mice and rats. 

Yet as thousands of animals continue to be massacred, laboratories outrageously continue to breed more.  CAARE’s previous request to NIH’s Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW) asking for a breeding ban during the pandemic has been ignored, and we are now asking Congress to intervene.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) has released a Strategic Plan detailing its research priorities for fighting COVID-19.  Unfortunately, the plan recommends ineffective and cruel animal studies while omitting non-animal methods that can provide more efficient, human-relevant data. 

Please ask NIAID to stop wasting resources creating animal models and instead utilize superior, human-centric methods in the fight against COVID-19.