We’ve long known that animal experimenters are still living in the dark ages—after all, they imprison our fellow animals in laboratories and subject them to cruel, useless experiments before killing them.

In one egregious example, experimenters have been using genetically manipulated mice as “models” for autistic humans.

In a recent major clinical study, a hormone tested on mice, which was thought to promote social bonding, was found to have “no meaningful impact” on autistic children.

The study was called a “major setback,” but it was doomed to fail from the start—children are not mice.

Autism refers to a broad range of characteristics, including differences in social skills and a tendency to exhibit repetitive behavior.
More than a decade of experiments on animals has shown that mice cannot replicate the unique aspects of autism in humans, and the scientific community is well aware that using them in experiments will not advance our understanding in this area.

It shouldn’t take countless failed clinical trials to prove that experimenting on mice will not produce anything of value for autistic humans.
Using mice in experiments to “cure” aspects of autism is speciesist and ableist.

In their failed attempts to replicate autism in mice, experimenters genetically modify the animals, inject them with chemicals, damage their brains, or manipulate the bacteria in their stomach, causing them to have fewer social interactions and produce unusual vocalizations.

Even though these genetically and experimentally modified mice aren’t autistic and mice are poor models for humans in general, some companies—such as Charles River Laboratories and The Jackson Laboratory—sell these animals to be tormented in pointless experiments often intended to “treat” specific characteristics of autism.

https://t.co/YUPDYcgPom Oh dear. Some errors in this document about using drugs to ‘cure’ us of autism. (Well, allegedly cure mice, of alleged autism, but I can understand they’re struggling to tell the difference)
I’ve helped fix their PR paper. pic.twitter.com/GrQy3f4pGM

— Ann Memmott PGC🌈 (@AnnMemmott) January 15, 2019

These experiments aren’t just cruel to mice, who have meaningful relationships, complex emotions, and interests of their own. They also harm neurodivergent humans by treating autism like a problem to solve.

Human-Relevant research is the answer for understanding human health

Mice and other animals aren’t ours to experiment on, and there are plenty of modern, non-animal research methods that can actually help autistic individuals.
For example, many human clinical trials have led to advances in early diagnosis, uncovering and addressing health disparities in autistic patients and understanding how autism affects adults.

PETA has been saying it since the beginning: It’s time to replace archaic experiments on animals with modern, human-relevant research.

PETA’s Research Modernization Deal is just the solution we need to revitalize laboratory research.

Help PETA replace cruel experiments on animals with human-relevant research by asking your legislators to support our plan:

https://headlines.peta.org/research-modernization-new-deal/#action (only for residents of the United States)

https://www.peta.org/blog/autism-experiments-on-mice-fail-in-human-trials/

And I mean…Animal experiments usually have no practical relevance.
The so-called “researchers” know it too.

But they also know that a lot of other interest groups are involved in this business, for example: universities that get millions in research funding, pharmaceutical and chemical industries, contract laboratories, laboratory animal breeders, companies that manufacture laboratory accessories … all of which have an economic interest in keeping animal experiments going .

It has long been clear that the pharmaceutical industry relies on animal testing for reasons other than human welfare.
They sell animal experiments as an alibi function: they have tested on animals, so the consumers automatically get a feeling of security and have confidence that the effect is guaranteed.

The German Research Foundation (DGF), which finances animal experiments in higher education to a large extent, had a budget of 3.3 billion euros (!!!) from the state treasury in 2019.
This is our money.

We give them huge sums of money so that they can discover why we are dying from cancer in terrifying numbers, and with our money they buy countless mice that they torture and kill for free in their research hells.

If these “researchers” still want to convince us that it makes sense to experiment with mice to solve the problem of autism, nothing can convince us that they have a useful mind.

My best regards to all, Venus