Most people are unaware of what truly happens inside an animal research laboratory. Animals may endure immense suffering—not only from the conditions they’re kept in and the way they’re treated, but also from the experiments themselves. This suffering escalates significantly when the procedures involve physical violence.
Acts that would be considered violent crimes outside the laboratory can be approved by an animal ethics committee and carried out repeatedly to numerous animals. In some cases, animals are denied adequate pain relief. In others, the inflicted injuries are so severe that euthanasia is necessary. Those that survive are then subjected to further experimentation to assess their cognitive, physiological or gross motor functioning after the sustained injury.
The physical and psychological torment these animals endure is confronting and explains why such research is often conducted with minimal transparency. AFSA is working to expose the research violence occurring in Australian laboratories under the guise of ‘science.’ Below, we document several disturbing examples taking place right now, on our doorstep.
If you would like to support our efforts, there are several ways that you too can take action.
Strangulation
Studies investigating injuries caused by strangulation—such as intimate partner violence (IPV)—use research models that replicate the act of strangulation, leading to suffocation and trauma to the neck and airways.
This type of animal research is not only cruel, but unnecessary. Superior, human-specific methods already exist, and these experiences contribute little, if anything, to improving outcomes for human victims of such violence.
Despite the availability of alternatives, serious scientific flaws and widespread opposition, this research not only continues but is recommended by researchers for further use.
Read more about strangulation violence in animal research here.
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
There are several ways researchers replicate head trauma and brain injury in laboratory settings. These include dropping heavy weights onto animals’ heads, driving pistons or metal rods through their skulls and into their brains at high speed, and exposing them to close-range explosions.
Aside from the intended brain injury, this research violence also results in secondary injuries, including (but not limited to) skull fracture, intracranial haemorrhage, brain swelling, concussion, contusions, lung damage, and death.
This form of animal research violence is commonly carried out on pigs, rats and mice, but has also been performed on primates and cats. In many cases, the anaesthesia is minimal and pain relief is not provided.
Further information on violent TBI studies can be found here.
Deliberate Surgical Injuries
Researchers intentionally inflict injuries on animals in order to study their pain. A common method involves making incisions with a surgical scalpel—typically on the animals’ paw pads. These sensitive areas are then exposed to painful stimuli, such as hot plates, sharp objects (the “Von Frey Task”) or crushing forces (the “Randall-Selitto” test). Researchers then measure pain based on the animal’s reaction; usually either vocalisation or withdrawal of the limb to avoid contact.
A 2024 Monash University study used this method on baby rats just one month old, separated from their mothers at two days old.
Physical Restraint
In order to handle animals at a distance, researchers will restrain animals in uncomfortable positions and often with great force. For example, primates must wear heavy metal plates around their necks (permanently), which can be hooked onto long poles, via which they are violently thrown by their necks into position (usually a restraint chair) with their body dangling underneath. They may also have their arms restrained behind their backs (similar to a person being hand-cuffed), which can be painful for them.
Similarly, cats can be carried by their scruff, which is both painful and distressing, and rats and mice are often carried by their tails.
See how primates in research are handled, here.
Force Feeding
Force feeding, or ‘Oral gavage,’ is the practice of delivering substances directly to the stomach by bypassing the oesophagus. Used mostly in toxicology studies, it involves forcing a tube or needle down the animals’ throat. It is invasive, distressing and associated with significant adverse effects, such as oesophageal damage, gastric rupture, aspiration and death.
It has also been used in Australia on primates for Malaria research, in a study conducted by the Australian Defence Force.
Read about the incidents associated with Oral Gavage in the latest study, here.
Many more forms of violence in animal research exist around the world, but AFSA has chosen to highlight only some of the violent animal models currently being used specifically in Australia.
What AFSA is doing to eliminate violence in animal research
AFSA works tirelessly behind the scenes to expose violent animal research experiments and hold accountable all those involved. We make sure to:
- Assess research methods with expert input
- File objections with animal ethics committees
- Submit Freedom of Information (FOI) requests
- Request retractions from academic journals
- Petition authorities and publish media releases
- File cruelty complaints with regulators
- Work with other organisations to raise awareness
- Lobbying for amendments to state legislation and the federal Code to better protect animals
Take action against violence in animal research
The horror and disgust that most people feel when learning of the violence in animal research is emblematic of the moral and ethical boundaries that it violates. These violent acts of cruelty would never be acceptable elsewhere—why should the animal research lab be an exemption?
Subjecting animals to this kind of suffering is simply indefensible.
Help us eliminate violence in animal research:
- Use the below form to email Animal Welfare Victoria, the regulator in Victoria where the study took place, requesting investigation into IPV research and prohibition of animal models replicating violent acts.
- Send a letter using our simple template to the responsible animal ethics committee to oppose strangulation studies.
- Contact the NHMRC and ask them to stop funding TBI research.
- Donate to AFSA or become a member of our community to support our work against animal research cruelty.
- Support a campaign targeting specific violent animal research.
Email Animal Welfare Victoria using this form. Your email will also be copied to the NHMRC, Monash University and the Alfred Medical Research and Education Precinct AEC.
Ask them to investigate the IPV research conducted in Victoria and prohibit all animal models replicating violent acts.
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AFSA would like to thank the organisations that have joined us in opposing strangulation research, with special mention to PETA, PCRM, Rise for Animals, Japan Anti-Vivisection Society and Alliance for Hope International.