‘Hideous cruelty’: Forced smoking experiments involve mice trapped in tight plastic tubes for long periods of time

Just when you hoped mankind had made progress eliminating test animals in laboratories for absolutely absurd experiments, the Animal Justice Party has revealed research forcing mice and rabbits into individual tight plastic tubes for extended periods of time and forcing them to breathe cigarette smoke drawn from a central tower as part of research into respiratory illnesses.

“In experiments approved in NSW, mice have cigarette smoke pressure pushed into their faces. Many animals die of asphyxiation if they move their heads, or experience hypothermia. If they survive repeated smoke inhalation (typically they are exposed for over an hour twice daily up to 120 times in total), their bodies will often then be opened up to see the impact on their organs.

https://www.emmahurstmp.com/drowning_and_smoking_experiments

According to Yahoo News Australia, the organization’s Emma Hurst, obtained government documents showing the experiments have been going on for years and calling it “hideous cruelty.” Taxpayer funds have been used to pay for the animal experiments through grants.

The experiments have only accentuated the hopelessness these tiny creatures must feel – being trapped in a tube and having cigarette smoke pushing into their nostrils twice a day. And to make matters even worse, the mice then have to deal with the health effects of the disease scientists have given them through these heartless experiments.

The University of Newcastle contends the experiments are necessary as a way to study the effects of smoking on Crohn’s disease, asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and that using mice and rabbits are necessary to finding a better way to treat illnesses. Veterinarians at the universities oversee the welfare of the animals, however other well-known veterinarians believe the long periods of confinement and the experiments can lead to stress for the animals and make them even more uncomfortable.

“Being confined in a tube where you can’t breathe very well, and you’re not getting enough air and feeling yourself asphyxiate is not likely to be dramatically different to experience for a mouse as it would be to a person to be honest,” stated veterinary Professor Andrew Knight. “We’re all mammals, we have the same sensory systems and the same reactions to those sorts of stimuli.”

The organization is calling for these experiments to be banned in Australia.

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