Arizona Public Radio | Your Source for NPR News
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

PETA to launch virtual reality experience at NAU to encourage animal empathy in university labs

Wikimedia

The animal rights organization PETA will be at Northern Arizona University Tuesday, April 11, 2023, to launch a virtual reality experience aimed at encouraging empathy for animals used in university laboratories.

Abduction takes visitors through an eerie virtual experience set up as a terrifying alien kidnapping. It’s a metaphor for the experience animals go through when they are held in captivity by humans and subjected to laboratory tests. PETA says at NAU, baby mice were subjected to ear punches, tissue samples and death for research purposes.

The Senior Director for PETA says the organization is taking Abduction to college and university campuses nationwide to bring attention to animal welfare and encourage a switch to non-animal research. According to PETA, 90% of all basic research – most of which involves animals – “fails to lead to treatments for humans.”

You can watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkTlG-o8l54.