PETA Protested Pfizer Over Test Company Says It No Longer Does

GROTON, CT — A group of PETA supporters plan to protest at the Groton offices of Pfizer Tuesday at noon to urge the company to ban the "widely discredited forced swim or 'despair'" laboratory test.

A statement from PETA reads that during this test, "mice and other small animals are placed in inescapable beakers filled with water and made to swim to keep from drowning, purportedly to shed light on human depression."

But Pfizer said in a statement that it has not conducted the tests since 2009.

"We believe PETA’s assertions about Pfizer and the forced swim test are misleading.

According to spokesman Steven Danehy, "Pfizer spoke with PETA in February to share our perspective regarding their concerns about the FST. In that call, we explained that since 2009, no Pfizer-operated research facility had used the FST, and Pfizer has no plans to fund, use or commission the use of this test. "

Danehy wrote, "We recognize that ensuring the health, welfare and well-being of our research animals is not only an ethical imperative, but also fundamental to good scientific outcomes in the discovery and development of important new medicines for patients.”

But PETA claimed in a press release that "Pfizer has used at least 1,270 mice and rats in such experiments, and in the 18 years that publications show that the company has used the test, it hasn't led to any marketable drugs to treat human depression."

"Nearly drowning mice is yesterday's science, and Pfizer knows it," PETA neuro-scientist Dr. Emily Trunnell said.

PETA said it was calling on the company to "join Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie, and other leading pharmaceutical companies in ditching the forced swim test in favor of advanced, animal-free research methods that might actually help humans with depression."

The protest was led by a "giant dancing 'CrapStick,'" at the Groton headquarters of the maker of Chap Stick.

Danehy said the protest was not well-attended.