News / University of Bristol
Angry activists storm into university open day
A university open day was disrupted by angry animal activists on Saturday.
PETA activists crashed the University of Bristol’s open day to “expose the cruelty of the notorious forced swim test to prospective students and their families”.
The forced swim tests that measure how long it takes for animals including guinea pigs, hamsters and gerbils to stop swimming to see how they cope with stress, have been under the scanner of animal activists for quite some time.
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At the open day, activists were seen handing out leaflets and chanting slogans to highlight the problems behind the controversial tests.
When contacted previously about the forced swim tests, a spokesperson from the university told Bristol24/7: “We recognise there are differing views about the use of animals in research, including some concerns around whether it is ethical.
“The university follows Home Office guidelines and is committed to using non-animal alternatives, but when these are not suitable to address scientific gaps in knowledge, we use animals to improve our understanding of health and disease – this includes neuroscience and diseases associated with mental health.
“The forced swim test or forced swimming are experimental procedures used by researchers at the University of Bristol to understand the neurobiology of stress.
“The test, for which no non-animal alternatives exist, has been approved as a valid model to study the processes underpinning how the brain deals with and adapts to stressful challenges.
“Increasing our understanding of this is important because stress is known to contribute to the development of major depression and many other illnesses.
“How we respond and adapt to stressful events in our lives is crucial for the development of new treatments for stress-related disorders.
“We do not use forced swimming procedures at Bristol to model depression or to screen antidepressants and no mice or rats have ever drowned or been swum to exhaustion.
“We are committed to open and ongoing dialogue about how and why animals are used in research.
“Details relating to the numbers of animals used annually and case studies illustrating the types of research undertaken are provided on the university’s website.
“We also keep up to date with the latest thinking on all aspects of research using animals – including advances in welfare – and have robust and thorough ethical review processes in place for every project.”
Main photo: PETA UK
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