During World Week for Animals in Laboratories, students from the University of Minnesota, in partnership with Lady Freethinker (LFT) and the Animal Rights Coalition, delivered more than 36,000 petition signatures to the university president’s office to demand that deadly experiments on kittens never resume.
Earlier this year, an LFT investigation uncovered the experiments, in which numerous kittens had their skulls drilled and their brains jolted with electricity before they were killed.
The students, who are a part of the Minneapolis-based organization Compassionate Action for Animals, delivered the petition signatures and held a banner telling the university to officially ban deadly experiments on kittens and all animals for good.
UMN Protest (Sabrina Hammoudeh)
Public records obtained by LFT revealed the kitten experiments were terminal, meaning all animals would be destroyed at the experiments’ end. Kittens also suffered from serious complications, including bruises, vomiting, muscle weakness, ruptured veins, inflamed tracheas, and hypothermia. Some kittens suffered such severe complications that they were killed prematurely.
The cruel experiments have consumed years of precious research time and more than $9 million of taxpayer-supported funding. To date, they have not yielded any direct application for humans, and the University was forced to suspend them after receiving an official warning from the federal government following kitten deaths and serious complications.
However, this doesn’t mean that the experiments won’t at some point continue. Although scientists have chosen not to resume the experiments, a new protocol was approved last year.
“Drilling into kittens’ skulls and jolting their brains with electricity is both cruel and needless,” said Nina Jackel, founder and president of Lady Freethinker. “We’re honored to be joining forces with university students to urge the school to forever end deadly kitten experiments and to instead prioritize research that doesn’t cause animals to suffer and die.”
UMN Protest (Sabrina Hammoudeh)
Students were outraged when LFT revealed the cruel animal experiments happening on the campus and were eager to call for change.
“I was shocked and horrified when I learned our university was drilling into the heads of innocent cats,” said Michael Cauthorn, a third-year student at the University of Minnesota. “Animal experimentation has constantly been a detriment to scientific and moral progress and must be put to a stop immediately.”
If you haven’t signed the petition yet, there is still time! Click the link below to take action now.
SIGN: Tell University of Minnesota to NEVER AGAIN Conduct Deadly Experiments on Kittens!
