Action Alerts

It’s been a bad year for scientists claiming that experiments on mice brains will produce human cures.

In the last four months, there have been two landmark publications describing unique features of the human brain that should – by all rational standards – halt all future brain research on animals in its tracks.

Please request that those responsible for millions of dollars in cruel and useless mouse experiments heed the results of these studies and stop experimenting on mice.

A CAARE investigation has revealed that John Hopkins University has been keeping monkeys cruelly confined in a laboratory to study the problem of human gambling.  We have learned that at least two monkeys, Aragorn and Isildur, have been used in invasive brain experiments, including extreme confinement. 

In Aragorn’s case, he’s been subjected to these experiments for nearly a decade.

As CAARE frequently reports, outstanding developments in science and technology are driving important advances in human medicine without the use of animals. Everything from cell-cultured organoids to 3D printing using human cells to sophisticated computer models are delivering results that are far more relevant to human health than animal experiments.

Many people express confidence in animal tests to advance human medicine, but if they knew the reality behind these experiments, that confidence would be shattered.

For example: studying depression. One standard method that scientists have devised is the Forced-Swim Test. In this misguided attempt, researchers drop rats and mice into inescapable tanks of water and watch as the terrified animals struggle to stay afloat for periods of time. Animals that stop swimming the soonest are considered depressed because they “gave up.”

Tucked away in the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Montana, a government laboratory is carrying out painful and sickening experiments, infecting animals’ brains with deadly prions to study Chronic Wasting Disease.

This is truly shocking.

At the State University of New York (SUNY) College of Optometry, scientists have been maiming and killing cats for years, claiming to study the brain’s role in vision.

In a groundbreaking move, global drug developer Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has filed a lawsuit and taken a principled stance against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its senseless demand that the company conduct an additional nine-month, large animal toxicity study in order to proceed with clinical trials for Vanda’s new drug, tradipitant.

As we close out the year and get ready for another year of diligent work to end the suffering of animals in laboratories, I want to thank each and every one of you for being part of this effort.

In a laboratory at John Hopkins University, a group of monkeys spend their lives as research subjects for brain experiments.

Two of these monkeys— Aragorn and Isildur —were recently used in experiments to investigate which region of the brain is involved in human gambling. Aragorn has been confined and used in these types of experiments for nearly 10 years.

Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston conducted a study claiming to show how yoga stretching may have a positive impact on breast cancer. The problem is the study, conducted on mice, has nothing to do with yoga stretching or human breast cancer.