After it passed the Legislative Council, I’ll introduce Emma Hurst MLC’s bill in the Legislative Assembly to stop forced swim and forced smoke tests in medical experiments. Congratulations Emma on this reform!

These experiments are cruel, unnecessary and have no scientific merit.

In forced swim tests, animals are dropped into beakers of water while experimenters watch the animal struggle to stay above water to survive. The animals are terrified and often drown. The test has been used to assess anti-depressants with the theory being that animals on functional anti-depressants will swim for longer.

Smoke inhalation studies confine animals in tiny plastic tubes where they have cigarette smoke pressure pumped into their nostrils to induce certain diseases but animals often die during the experiment, the stress of the process interferes with results and there are alternatives.

Most credible researchers have stopped using forced swim and forced smoke tests with Commonwealth grants no longer available for them. But they continue in a few studies and must be banned. Sign the petition in support of reform > HERE.