Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 might be a work of fiction, but some of its scenes are based on reality. Rocket Raccoon’s heartbreaking origin story didn’t come out of Knowhere—it was inspired by the torment that animals in laboratories have endured for decades. But you can help these animals.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Exposes the Reality for Animals in Laboratories

Marvel reveals Rocket’s backstory while opening moviegoers’ eyes to the horrors of animal testing. Nebula said it best: Using animals in experimentation is “worse than anything Thanos ever did,” and it needs to end.

Here are just a few things that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 exposes about animals used in experimentation:

• Animals are given ID numbers, like 89P13, instead of names.
• Their ID numbers are typically tattooed on their chests, like both Lylla’s and Rocket’s, or inside their ears.
• While both Rocket and Floor and both Lylla and Teefs are housed together in the movie, that’s often not the case in the real world. Workers keep many species of animals in small, separate cages. But like in the film, cages are small and the animals have little or no enrichment.
• As a baby, Rocket is shown strapped into a restraining device while The High Evolutionary and OrgoCorp scientists experiment on him. The device in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is eerily similar to real-life ones that experimenters use to restrain primates in laboratories.
• Experiments are often driven by curiosity and serve no real purpose.

Right now, millions of mice, rats, rabbits, monkeys, cats, dogs, and other animals are locked inside barren cages in laboratories across the country. They languish in pain, ache with loneliness, and long to be free from animal testing. After enduring a life of pain, loneliness, and terror, almost all of them will be killed. But you can help these animals.

Animals need the support of compassionate people like you to speak out against cruel and pointless experiments. Get started below: