Ten ways animals are traumatized in PTSD experiments
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM CAARE Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research
January 2021

Experiments confine, torment and terrorize sentient animals to create what they call “animal models” of PTSD.

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Tail suspension test involves hanging mice and rats upside down by taping their tails to a board, where they are left hanging as they struggle to escape. Desperate animals may try to climb their tails. Some researchers will insert the tail into a small plastic cylinder to prevent this. They are left hanging until they stop struggling, which researchers claim demonstrates despair. Many animals will experience skin injury on their tails from repeated use of tape.

CAARE's report, From Trauma to Treatment, details the sweeping failure of PTSD experiments on animals to help patients, in contrast to existing, effective treatments and modalities for human-based research.

Yet despite the existence of highly successful therapies to treat PTSD, only 10% of patients currently receive them.

Rather than bridge this gap in access to care, millions of government dollars continue to fund appalling experiments that intentionally traumatize animals, claiming to study PTSD.

To do this, scientists confine, torment and terrorize sentient animals to create what they call “animal models” of PTSD.

Listed below are 10 of these heinous experiments that are so standardized, researchers have designated names for them.* Keep in mind that for PTSD research, these procedures are typically carried repeatedly....

 

Read the ENTIRE ARTICLE and TAKE ACTION: Ten ways animals are traumatized in PTSD experiments

In underwater trauma, animals are placed in an inescapable tank of water and forced to swim helplessly with no resting platforms or sides to cling to. After this, they are then submerged and held underwater in a metal net for 30 seconds. This slow suffocation is analogous to torture. Researchers tout that this induces intense trauma because the animals believe they are going to drown.

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