"New findings, led by environmental health scientist Laura Vandenberg at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, reveal that the method of force-feeding chemicals down the throats of animals, known as “oral gavage,” does not give an accurate indication of those chemicals’ effects on humans. Oral gavage typically involves pumping chemicals through an animal’s mouth with a tube or a syringe for days at a time. Gavage tubes are also used to fatten up ducks who are raised for foie gras. In this case, a massive amount of grain is shoved down the throats of birds, so that their livers grow to severely unhealthy sizes.
There has never been any question regarding the inherent cruelty involved with oral gavage, but Laura Vandenberg’s study shows that the method causes animals so much stress that it is impossible to conduct an accurate study on the effects of any given chemical. Please urge government officials to save animals from unnecessary cruelty by banning this torturous technique once and for all."
