“This morning, PETA filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) calling for an investigation into Bucknell University’s cruel and deadly sex-related experiments on female hamsters. A former Bucknell student contacted PETA about the studies, which have been going on for nearly 30 years. PETA first expressed its concern about the experiments to the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences but has received little more than a form reply.
According to the USDA complaint, physiological psychology professor Owen Floody cuts holes in the skulls of female hamsters, damages their brains, and then observes the effects on the hamsters’ sexual behavior when students in his class manually stimulate the animals or expose them to male hamsters. Hamsters are provided with absolutely no painkillers after the experiments, even though research shows that there is significant pain and discomfort following these procedures. At the conclusion of the experiment, the hamsters are killed and their brains are dissected.
PETA has posted an action alert on its popular Web site asking visitors to contact Bucknell University provost Sue Conway and ask that the hamster experiments be replaced with humane, non-animal teaching methods that are being used in physiological psychology courses at other universities.
“Floody’s sexual experiments on hamsters are more examples of cruel, wasteful, outdated science,” says PETA Director of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. “Three decades of needlessly tormenting and killing hamsters must come to an end right now.”"
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