Farfromhüman — Stop VW’s Cruel Bird Experiments!
What do European robins, garden warblers, and zebra finches have in common? They’re all beautiful birds who love the freedom of flight and their natural surroundings. They all have glorious voices and instincts to match. And they have all been decapitated in cruel experiments sponsored by Volkswagen.
IDA was sickened to learn that the Volkswagen Foundation is paying experimenters at German and U.S. universities to capture and use these beautiful songbirds in worthless experiments that terrify the birds before they are ruthlessly killed for curiosity’s sake. Although the use of any animal for experimentation is objectionable, the thought of birds—who are universal symbols of joy and freedom—captured, caged, terrorized, and vivisected, is particularly heinous. Birds are indeed so fragile that they often die of fright from the capture or transportation process.
These atrocious acts are taking place at the University of Oldenburg in Germany and Duke University in North Carolina. Songbirds captured from the wild and captive canaries and finches are exposed to different light cycles or are fitted with eye caps glued tightly to their heads to block out all light. Researchers then cut the birds’ heads off to slice their retinas out of their eyes, and dissect and study their brains for clues to the secret of migration.
IDA has written to Volkswagen of America’s new CEO, Stefen Jacoby, asking him to assure us, for a start, that no more birds will be killed using the company’s money. Today we are kicking off a campaign starting with a demonstration in downtown Detroit, home to the automaker’s U.S. headquarters where activists will wield a giant banner that reads “VW: Stop Killing Birds!”
The Volkswagen Foundation has funded many other experiments on animals, and we want Mr. Jacoby to end them all. We’ve asked him to start with the birds, and from there we will work with the company to make sure that the Volkswagen Foundation, which does many good things, stops funding all deadly projects. The company may insist that it has nothing to do with the Volkswagen Foundation’s policies and functions but the foundation would not have come into being in 1961 without the automaker, and revenues for the foundation continue to accrue from returns on the VW shares held by the State of Lower Saxony.
You can send an email to the Prez/CEO of VW here.
