NOTE: We do not endorse PETA but determined to post this article written by PETA because both existing and extensive data on human trauma cases already existed for study and analysis prior to these animal studies. We agree with PETA’s conclusion because extensive studies by researchers had already proven that NFL players were at risk for both serious head trauma and the medical consequences for sustained head trauma injuries. The NFL had remained in denial for years while more and more players were being negatively affected by head injuries. Instead of admitting that the established in-depth studies on injuries sustained by NFL players (proven by autopsies on those same players) were accurate – the NFL remained in denial for years and determined to spend millions on head injuries in animals. The NFL would finally succumb to admitting it was wrong and settled with 5,000 former players who sued the league, alleging that it had hidden the dangers of concussions from them. Therefore, these animals studies were completely unnecessary.
Note: This article appeared on PETA’s website: PETA / ACTION CENTER / ACTION ALERTS
Titled: Tell the NFL to Stop Funding Sports-Injury Experiments on Animals
For years, the National Football League Foundation, formerly known as NFL Charities, has quietly funded horrific and deadly sports-injury experiments on dogs, mice, rats, and other animals at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of California–Los Angeles, the University of Notre Dame, and other schools and private laboratories.
These projects, many of which are ongoing, are crudely designed to recreate injuries on the football field. They have involved inflicting severe knee injuries on dogs, after which the animals are killed and have their legs cut off; repeatedly slamming heavy weights into rats’ heads to create brain and spinal cord injuries and skull fractures; and cutting open the heads of mice and delivering crushing blows to cause traumatic brain injuries. Many animals have even died during the studies because of the severe injuries that they sustained.
In addition to these experiments being cruel, studies have shown that they do not accurately replicate the complex injuries sustained by football players, and data and treatments derived from brain-injury experiments on animals have repeatedly failed to help human patients.
Following the NFL’s $765 million settlement with former football players who suffered head injuries during their professional careers, the league announced that it is allocating $10 million for “research and education.” But continuing to bash in animals’ heads and cripple dogs won’t help prevent and treat injuries sustained by NFL players. It’s time for a new playbook when it comes to advancing the science of treating traumatic injuries.
Further, let it be noted that the head of a mouse, baboon or dog are not quality subjects for human trauma studies because the skull configuration of these subjects does not match the human skull and therefore the head trauma for an animal will not be the same for a human. For example, the automobile industry stopped using dogs in car crash tests and replaced them with dummies which indicated trauma to the human body better than that of a live animal. A dog strapped to the driver’s seat cannot accurately predict how the body of a human will sustain injury in a car crash because the height, sitting position, skull configuration and bodily structure of a dog does not match that of the human model.
It is obvious to anyone that an animal whose head is pounded repeatedly will both sustain trauma and be negatively affected by those same sustained injuries. Human models outside of the NFL who had already sustained serious head trauma were also available for study. The NFL had to produce some study to quell the public relation debacle it was experiencing making these animal studies irrelevant.