The case of crash tests in China in which researchers are testing inhumane live pigs is raising an uproar. The widespread images show terrible clashes and mutilations.
The tests under accusation they involved 15 young pigs, tied to car seats and used as dummies to analyze the effects of the clashes. Many of them were still very young, between 70 and 80 days old: all were also left without water for the previous 6 hours.
Half of the animals died during the tests and the rest were severely injured.
The researchers justified themselves by underlining the need to use young pigs due to the similarity of their bodies to those of a child, a factor that would have improved the study. The tests, they continued in a statement, complied with Western guidelines and in any case received the approval of an ethics committee.
The scientists responsible for these experiments claim to comply with U.S. guidelines and have claimed that their study has been approved by an ethics committee.
Theses do not hold up: crash tests with animals have been banned between Europe and the USA since the 90s.
Zachary Tolliver, spokesman for PETA, said that these experiments are absolutely senseless and cruel.
“Despite the existence of sophisticated models that allow us to do without them, some tests continue to put frightened animals in car seats and crash them against walls until their bones are literally pulverized. Many are left with broken bones and serious internal injuries before being killed and sectioned."he said.
Does this type of test really make little sense?
The body of pigs is not accustomed to sitting in the car. Their anatomy is also very different from the human one. I doubt that the data obtained from these tests are reliably applicable to the victims of human road accidents.
The major ones car companies they discovered years ago that these types of tests are useless and tell us nothing about a human experience in a car accident.
