PETA's Tiny Mouse Needs Your Help to Stop Big Pharma Testing
In “Mouse Lab,” a mouse running his own experiment gets the shock of his life when the real world comes crashing in.
This new public service announcement (PSA) could be the opening scene of Pixar’s latest animated feature. A mouse runs along the forest floor, clearly late for school.
He dives into a hole at the base of a tree and enters an underground laboratory with beakers full of colorful liquids, complete with a professor who is exasperated by our hero’s tardiness.
The scene is cute, and the tone is light. Until it isn’t.
Working with PETA, ad company 160over90 created this clever PSA to depict the reality of experimentation from the viewpoint of individual animals—all animals, no matter how tiny, have a mind, a personality, and the desire to go about their own lives.
The mouse on his way to class represents the uncounted millions of mice, rats, and other animals who are used and killed in U.S. laboratory experiments each year in abusive and scientifically bogus tests like the “forced swim test,” in which mice are forced to swim for their lives in inescapable containers, trying not to drown. Pharma giant Pfizer, maker of ChapStick, refuses to ban this test, which has provided absolutely no useful data, except to prove that animal experimenters have boundlessly cruel imaginations.
In fact, 90% of basic research—most of which involves experiments on animals—leads to zero treatments for humans, and 95% of new drugs that test safe and effective in animals fail in human clinical trials. Animal experiments are wasteful as well as unethical.
Mice and all animals deserve to lead their own lives. Watch the PSA and see if you agree.
What Can You Do?
Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly has refused to enact a ban on the use of the test. Tell the company what you think about that by taking action below.