PETA is opposing futile and brutal sepsis experiments on animals in a landmark lawsuit against the National Institutes of Health (NIH), NIH Director Francis Collins, US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. The lawsuit alleges that funding for sepsis tests on animals –despite decades of failure, wasted taxpayer dollars, and mountains of evidence that animals are poor models for sepsis research– violates legal obligations of agencies to reduce the number of animals used in experiments, minimize animal suffering and fund research for the benefit of human health.
PETA activists spoke to passengers during rush hour, explaining that NIH’s useless sepsis experiments on mice are not only brutal, but a waste of taxpayer money.
What is sepsis?
Sepsis is a condition characterized by an extreme reaction of the body to infection. This leads to one in three hospital deaths, with an average of 270,000 Americans killed per year. In light of these sepsis-related deaths in the United States and as the self-proclaimed “steward” of medical research, the NIH should prioritize research relevant to the treatment of sepsis in humans.
Sepsis takes lives, and animal experiments waste precious time and money
Before filing a lawsuit with the NIH, PETA sent the agency a comprehensive scientific and legal report explaining why funding sepsis experiments is not only bad science, but potentially illegal.
Animal tests for sepsis have consistently failed to lead to effective treatments. Even Collins lamented the “heartbreaking loss of decades of research and billions of dollars” in the development of 150 drugs that have successfully treated sepsis in mice but have failed in humans. The NIH has known since at least 2013 – from a groundbreaking study that took a decade to complete and that involved dozens of researchers from institutions across the country – that sepsis does not affect humans like it does mice.
Collins replied: “No wonder the drugs designed for mice didn’t work for humans: they did treat a variety of diseases!” In addition, at least 15 peer-reviewed publications over the past 18 years have described how sepsis in humans is fundamentally different from sepsis in other animals.
Mice suffer from bizarre sepsis tests
Congress also directed the NIH to support animal-free research that reduces the number of animals used and reduces pain and distress to animals. In sepsis tests, experimenters inject toxins or faeces into animals, cut them open during invasive operations, force-feed them with harmful bacteria, or force them to inhale a bacterial “suspension.” Animals suffer from fever, chills, diarrhea, shortness of breath, lethargy, disorientation, shock, multiple organ failure, and eventually death.
Call on NIH to end funding testing for severe sepsis in mice and other animals
The NIH has spent billions of taxpayer dollars on cruel experiments that have repeatedly failed. We have said this countless times, and we will say it again: it is time to replace archaic animal experiments with human-related research, such as in vitro experiments using human cells, experiments using donated human tissues, computer simulations, etc. such ruthless methods.
Talk about mice and other animals that have been mutilated and killed in sepsis experiments. Call on the NIH to stop funding these tests:
Call on the NIH to stop funding animal sepsis experiments!