Evidently PepsiCo (the vast majority of whose products are almost entirely unnecessary to a healthy life: i.e., soft drinks & Fritos) was involved with a number of animal tests that will now be ended as a result of PETA's negotiations with the company. PETA may not do everything right, but the organization is certainly to be congratulated for their many successful campaigns to end animal testing by various large corporations.
According to PETA, PepsiCo's Gatorade Sports Science Institute funded a student research project in which mice were infected with a respiratory virus and then forced to exercise on a treadmill for three days.Despite this good news, I would like to take a sober moment to encourage a more fundamental approach to ending the use of nonhuman animals in research as PETA continues its campaign. So long as animal research is ethically accepted by consumers and the law, it will continue, and PETA will only be chipping away at the practice one company at a time, a Sisyphean task, to be sure. Perhaps the organization's efforts will reach a tipping point at which the public will reject all animal testing, but I foresee a much steeper mountain to push that boulder up once we get to animals used in pharmaceutical and biomedical research. Only widespread opposition to the use of animals for human ends can abolish animal experimentation altogether.
In addition, its PepsiCo Foundation funded an experiment in which testosterone pellets and human prostate tumors were implanted in mice, PETA said.
PepsiCo spokeswoman Elaine Palmer said PepsiCo is not always aware of the specific projects it funds through partner institutions or organizations.
"The problem is, of course, that these are partners," Palmer said. "With an organization as large as PepsiCo, it's hard to fully police that, so we're hoping that this statement will make known that we encourage our partners to use alternatives to animal testing."
Labels: animal experimentation, animal testing
