Scientific watchdogs are ringing the alarm after learning that researchers in New Zealand have used guinea pigs in multiple gruesome experiments, including injecting them with methamphetamine.

The New Zealand Anti-Vivisection Society (NZAVS) has conducted an investigation into how guinea pigs are used for research and testing in NZ, and they are deeming the results as "shocking."

Eight female Dunkin Hartley guinea pigs were sourced from a breeding unit and used in this ‘meth’ experiment. They were housed separately, and methamphetamine was injected into the animals on three alternate days to try and mimic recreational drug exposure in humans. All of the animals were killed at the end of the study.

The purpose of this experiment was to study the effect of methamphetamine on enzyme activity in fertile female guinea pigs to then try and translate these findings to pregnant people.

When the use of animals to try and model human outcomes fails over 90%- of the time, NZAVS is labelling this experiment as ‘unethical’ and ‘fundamentally flawed’:

"Injecting guinea pigs with ‘meth’ is beyond unethical. This isn’t the answer for improving human health; in fact, it is siphoning funds away from better, human-centered and animal-free research, which ultimately could deliver better, long-term health outcomes for people in Aotearoa." says the NZAVS Executive Director, Tara Jackson.

"NZAVS has been calling on the NZ Government to start funding animal-free research in NZ for years now. This critical funding would help researchers use and develop animal-free and more human-relevant methods that would help not only animals but also the integrity and quality of the science we are producing in Aotearoa. Instead, experiments like this one involving guinea pigs are just further proof of the urgency for our research community to have access to better funding opportunities, and now."

The study is just one of many that NZAVS has uncovered in their investigation.

NZAVS also found NZ-based studies where guinea pigs were decapitated so their hearts could be removed and examined, injected with tuberculosis, and later killed, fed sugary water while pregnant to see its impact on their offspring, which were then killed and dissected.

Miss Jackson concludes: "The bottom line is that animals and humans are fundamentally different. Although guinea pigs have been widely considered test subjects for decades, they simply aren’t mini humans."

- https://nzavs.org.nz/animal-testing-failure-rate

Notes:

- A full copy of the research is available here: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0233010

- View more info on the experiment here: https://nzavs.org.nz/news/2023/07/13/guinea-pigs-injected-with-meth/

- View an overview of how guinea pigs are used for science in NZ here: https://nzavs.org.nz/guinea-pigs

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