Red Bull Tests on Rats

Just yesterday this came to my attention that Red Bull has been doing some horrible, and unneccesary, testing on animals. Specifically rats.

This does not make me happy and thus I will no longer be buying or drinking Red Bull. I havent found anything relating to Monster Energy, which would be my Red Bull replacement, but I’ll dig a little further before feeling comfortable.

The truth is, sure, there are probably a lot of products I use that test on animals. I try make informed decisions, ie which makeup brands I buy, that dont test on animals, but I do understand and accept that medicines are tested on animals (although, I believe we shoud test on criminals convicted for life, but that’s a whole other discussion which I wont get into online, let alone on RN).

My point of this post is to inform you, in case you were like me and unaware of this unnecessary testing.

Red Bull funds animal testing

An investigation done by the German organisation “Doctors Against Animal Experiments” has revealed that soft drink producer Red Bull has close ties with vivisection by regularly funding animal research projects.
At the university of Vienna, Austria ,during these experiments sponsored by Red Bull, rat babies were drowned. Other rat babies were held under water for 20 minutes to study the late effects of respiratory arrest and oxygen deficit at the time of birth.

The experiments were meant to test long-term damages after a lack of oxygen administration. Pregnant female rat mothers were killed by breaking their necks. The uterus – including the rat babies – was then held under water for 20 minutes. In former experiments, it was tested how long the babies would survive under water. After 21 minutes, 90% of the babies died. After 22 minutes, all died. Rat babies that survived suffered lifelong conduct disorders.

According to Dr. Corina Gericke, spokesperson of Doctors Against Animal Experiments, these experiments are cruel and useless as “the causes of respiratory distress in human infants, so called perinatal asphyxia, which is supposed to be mimicked here, are diverse and also totally different from the laboratory situation. Also the effects of this are already well-known”.

Source: http://www.vegaplanet.org/?p=98

Red Bull Loves to Test On Animals
New press release from doctors against animal experiments regarding the red bull case

“Doctors Against Animal Experiments Germany revealed that soft drink producer Red Bull funded experiments where rat babies were drowned. According to its own account the company regularly funds animal research projects and is even proud of this.
Investigations of the German organisation Doctors Against Animal Experiments revealed that Red Bull supports harmful animal experiments. At the university hospital of Vienna, Austria, rat babies were drowned. Other rat babies were held under water for 20 minutes to study the late effects of respiratory arrest and oxygen deficit at the time of birth. “These experiments are cruel and unnessessary,” says Dr. Corina Gericke, spokesperson of Doctors Against Animal Experiments. “The causes of respiratory distress in human infants, so called perinatal asphyxia, which is supposed to be mimicked here, are diverse and also totally different from the laboratory situation. Also the effects of this are already well-known”.
According to its own account Red Bull funds also animal research in the field of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease on a regular basis. “These research areas are good examples for the failure of animal experiments”, explains veterinarian Gericke. A study with an Alzheimer vaccination had to be stopped after several patients had developed meningitis. This side effect could not be predicted by the preceding animal test. Other pharmaceutical products which were successful in animals, so called cholinesterase inhibitors, proved little effective in humans but highly risky for unwanted side effects.
“Medical progress is of course important, but animal experiments are the wrong way, ” says Gericke. “It is not understandable why Red Bull does not use its money for useful and reliable non-animal research instead of supporting flawed and outdated animal experiments.” The Doctors Against Animal Experiments call for protests against Red Bull and calls the company to withdraw its funds from animal research.

Further information:
Neurochemical Research 2004: 29(9), 1767-1777 and Gerontology 2004: 50, 200-205″

www.doctors-against-animal-experiments.org

Source: http://geari.blogspot.com/2005/04/red-bull-loves-to-test-on-animals.html

Just thought y’all would like to know.