Have you ever wanted to sign a petition against a company that tests on animals from your computer (I myself hate mailing anything — you have to find stamps and take letters to the mail box — it’s so much easier if you can just email, isn’t it?)?

Anyway, Glen Venezio (Hi Glen!) has started a great petition over at thepetitionsite.com against Mars, Inc. Apparently, Mars, Inc. conducts a lot of inhumane tests on animals. So, if you’re interested, drop by the anti-Mars Inc. petition and sign up! Here’s the petition overview, the entire petition, and here’s the letter. The petition will eventually go out to hundreds of Mars executives and some Mars family members. They’ve got 983 signatures and they need 10,000 — so your vote will count!

PETA has a webpage devoted to the atrocities that Mars, Inc. commits — if you would like to see exactly what kind of inhumane testing Mars is involved in, check it out — it’s very informative.

If you’re interested in boycotting Mars for testing on animals — here are the candies it makes:

• M&M’S
• SNICKERS
• SKITTLES
• MILKY WAY
• STARBURST
• THREE MUSKETEERS
• TWIX
• DOVE
• M-AZING
• COCOAVIA
• ETHEL M
• LUCAS
• MUNCH

And here’s the list of other products that Mars, Inc. owns (Wikipedia):

• AquaDrops
• Aquarium Pharmaceuticals (recently renamed to Mars Fish Care)
• Bounty
• Celebrations
• Cesar (Dog Food
• Fling
• Flyte
• Galaxy
• Greenies
• Kudos
• Lockets
• Malteser
• M-Azing
• Medi-Cal (Prescription Pet Food)
• Minstrels
• Nutro
• Pedigree
• Pill Pockets
• Revels
• Royal Canin (Pet Food)
• Schmackos
• Sheba (cat food)
• Techni-Cal
• Topic
• Tracker
• Whiskas

I’m not going to have any trouble giving up any of those except for Twixes (for myself) and Greenies (for my dog). I’m really addicted to Twixes — luckily I only eat them around Halloween, so I’m safe till next October. I think I’ll stick with Hershey’s products for candy from now on (apparently Hershey’s has pledged to never test on animals). I’m a little concerned though that Mars owns Greenies — I always buy them for my dog for long car rides, and they really help keep her occupied. If you have any recommendation for breath-freshening dog treats that will occupy a dog for at least fifteen minutes, please drop me a line!

Here is an abbreviated version of the petition. The first part is very unpleasant to read — if you don’t like to read details of horrific animal experiments, I suggest you skip to the end. (If you’d like to read the whole petition in its entirety — it’s quite interesting and includes updates on Pamela Anderson writing to Mars to end animal testing, PETA demonstrating against Mars, Mars obfuscating the issue by claiming that it doesn’t really test on animals, its subsidiary does — click here).

The Petition:

Tell Mars Inc., to stop testing on animals!

Got a sweet tooth? Think twice before picking up a Mars candy bar! You should know that candymaker Mars, Inc., creator of M&M’s, Snickers, Twix, Dove, Three Musketeers, Starburst, Skittles, and other candies, funds deadly animal tests, even though there are more reliable human studies and not one of the tests is required by law.

Mars recently funded a deadly experiment on rats to determine the effects of chocolate ingredients on their blood vessels. Experimenters force-fed the rats by shoving plastic tubes down their throats and then cut open the rats’ legs to expose an artery, which was clamped shut to block blood flow. After the experiment, the animals were killed. Mars has also funded cruel experiments in which mice were fed a candy ingredient and forced to swim in a pool of a water mixed with white paint. The mice had to find a hidden platform to avoid drowning, only to be killed and dissected later on. In yet another experiment supported by Mars, rats were fed cocoa and anesthetized with carbon dioxide so that their blood could be collected by injecting a needle directly into their hearts, which can lead to internal bleeding and other deadly complications.

Mars’ top competitor, Hershey’s, has pledged not to fund or conduct experiments on animals.

Mars is also apparently lying to the public, claiming that it doesn’t fund cruel animal tests, even though PETA has uncovered a history of such experiments.

If you call their Consumer Care hotline in the USA at 1-800-627-7852 (Mars’ consumer hotline calls in the US are handled by the outsourced company TeleRX Marketing Inc. in Pennsylvania), they have a recorded message that says Mars does not conduct or fund any animal experimentation. If you speak to a Mars representative, they will read you the same statement. This has already been exposed in the media as a falsehood, with the University of California confirming in a statement to Reuters (see link below) that they are currently conducting animal research for Mars Inc. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has been asked to investigate Mars’ false claims; that Mars is apparently deceiving consumers with their policy statement saying they do not conduct or fund animal experimentation, when it is clear from news media and published articles in scientific journals that they do.

Tell Mars why you are opposed to animal testing and if you no longer wish to purchase their products in light of this news.

Web references to this issue can be found at:

http://marscandykills.com/

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSN1433837420071214 ( [actress] Pamela Anderson slams Mars over animal cruelty )

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0731748320071208 ( PETA boycotting Mars candy co. over animal cruelty )

http://www.confectionerynews.com/news/ng.asp?n=82017-mars-peta-animal-testing ( Mars angers activists over animal testing )

http://www.nutraingredients.com/news/ng.asp?id=77026-mars-epicatechin-memory

Other references from scientific journals that confirm that Mars Inc. indeed funds animal experimentation can be found at:

*Elizabeth Paisley et al., “Temporal-Regulation of Serum Lipids and Stearoyl CoA Desaturase and Lipoprotein Lipase mRNA in BALB/cHnn Mice,” Journal of Nutrition (1996) 126.11: 2730-2737.
*Timothy Orozco et al., “Chronic consumption of a flavanol- and procyanindin-rich diet is associated with reduced levels of 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine in rat testes,” Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry (2003) 14: 104-10.

*Francene Steinberg et al., “Pyrroloquinoline Quinone Improves Growth and Reproductive Performance in Mice Fed Chemically Defined Diets,” Experimental Biology and Medicine (2003) 228: 160-66.

*Henriette van Praag I et al., “Plant-derived flavanol (-)epicatechin enhances angiogenesis and retention of spatial memory in mice.” Journal of Neuroscience (2007) 27: 5869-5878.

More info on Mars-funded experiments:

Not one of Mars’ experiments on animals is required by law. Even so, Mars has paid experimenters to kill untold numbers of animals in tests:

Mars recently funded an experiment on rats at the University of California, San Francisco, to determine the effect of chocolate ingredients on the animals’ blood vessels, even though the experimenter admitted that studies have already been done using humans. Experimenters force-fed the rats by shoving plastic tubes down their throats and then cut open the rats’ legs to expose an artery, which was clamped shut to block blood flow. After the experiment, the animals were killed.

Mars funded a deadly experiment on mice that was published in a 2007 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience in which mice were fed flavanols (phytochemicals that are found in chocolate) and forced to swim in a pool of water mixed with white paint to hide a submerged platform, which the mice had to find in order to avoid drowning, only to be killed and dissected later on.

In one experiment supported by Mars and conducted by the current Mars, Inc., endowed chair in developmental nutrition at the University of California, Davis, rats were fed cocoa and anesthesized with carbon dioxide so that blood could be collected by a needle injected directly into the heart— a procedure criticized by U.S. Department of Agriculture researcher Dr. William T. Golde, who notes: “This is not a simple method……. Missing the heart or passing the needle completely through the heart could lead to undetected internal bleeding or other complications.”

Mars supported a cruel experiment to learn how a chocolate ingredient called PQQ affects metabolism by cramming baby mice into 200-milliliter Plexiglas metabolic chambers–around half the size of a 12-ounce soda can– and then submerging the chamber for nearly five hours in a chilled water bath, inducing labored breathing in the distressed mice. Experimenters then shoved tubes down the mice’s throats every day for 10 days to force-feed them the PQQ, after which they were killed and cut up for analysis.

Mars funded a test in which experimenters forced rabbits to eat a high-cholesterol diet with varying amounts of cocoa, then cut out and examined tissue from the rabbits’ primary blood vessel to the heart to determine the effect of cocoa on rabbits’ muscle tissue.

Mars supported a test in which experimenters attached plastic tubes to arteries in guinea pigs’ necks and injected cocoa ingredients into their jugular veins to examine the effect of cocoa ingredients on their blood pressure.

Note: Most of the information here is from PETA’s site on this issue at http://marscandykills.com/ I have made this petition in order to help publicize this important issue and to spread public awareness, as well as to share with Mars Inc. what consumers have to say, since they obviously do not seem to be listening too closely to consumer concerns since this issue hit the media some months ago. Mars Inc.’s mission statement/company philosophy, which is called “The Five Principles”, speaks of such things as high standards of “honesty and integrity”, the “company’s ethical responsibility”, and the “bond of trust, respect, and honesty that we share with ….. our consumers.” They also say in the same mission statement, and verbally repeat it often in media interviews, that “the consumer is our boss.” Let’s hope that all of their corporate values will shine through when dealing with this issue of animal testing that has obviously upset so many consumers.

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PETITION TEXT:

Please Stop Funding Unnecessary and Cruel Experiments on Animals!

I was shocked to learn that Mars is still funding deadly animal tests even though the tests are not required by law, more reliable human studies could be used instead, and your chief competitor, Hershey’s, refuses to test its products on animals. Please follow Hershey’s lead by promising not to fund or conduct experiments on animals.

Unless I hear that Mars has ended all support for animal tests, I will be buying my candy from a more compassionate company and will encourage my friends and family to do the same.

Categories : against animal testing, cruelty free