Reuters: PETA boycotting Mars candy co. over animal cruelty

[Guest guest]

--- Bruce Friedrich <brucef wrote:

Fri, 7 Dec 2007 21:07:44 -0500

> " Bruce Friedrich " <brucef

>

> Web site about the story below (please crosspost):

>

> www.marscandykills.com

> <http://www.marscandykills.com/index.asp>

> >

>

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0731748320071208

>

PETA boycotting Mars candy co. over animal cruelty

>

>> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People for the Ethical

> Treatment of Animals

> (PETA) is calling for a boycott of M & Ms, Twix candy

> bars and other snack

> foods made by Mars Inc, claiming the company funds

> experiments that kill

> mice, rats, guinea pigs and rabbits.

>

> " In violation of its own written policy, the candy

> company is currently

> funding a study at the University of California, San

> Francisco, that

> uses rats. The rats are force fed by having plastic

> tubes shoved down

> their throats, and they are then cut open and

> killed, " PETA said in a

> statement.

>

> " In response to this new information, PETA is filing

> a legal complaint

> with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over Mars'

> false statement, " the

> group said in a statement. The FTC investigates

> claims of dishonesty in

> advertising.

>

> Mars spokeswoman Alice Nathanson said regarding the

> University of

> California experiment: " I can't speak to any

> information that PETA may

> or may not have. I can't speak to any experiments. "

>

> But, she said that the privately held company " would

> never issue or post

> a statement that we were not 100 percent confident

> in. "

>

> PETA spokeswoman Kathy Guillermo said in an

> interview the experiments

> seemed aimed at developing health claims for

> chocolate because it

> contains flavonoids.

>

> Health studies have found that flavonoids protect

> against heart disease

> and cancer.

>

> Guillermo said the boycott would start on Monday.

>

> Mars says on its Web site that it bars animal

> research " involving

> euthanasia, vivisection or the suffering of any

> animal " in developing

> its snacks, drinks and pet products.

>

>

>

> But the Web site also says that a separate business

> unit, Symbioscience,

> would undertake " limited forms of animal testing "

> when required to

> demonstrate the safety or efficacy of

> " pharmaceutical and therapeutic

> food products. "

>

> PETA said in its statement that Mars paid for

> experiments in which mice

> had to swim in a pool of water and paint and find a

> hidden platform to

> avoid drowning and were killed later.

>

> The group also accused Mars of funding an experiment

> in which plastic

> tubes were surgically attached to guinea pigs'

> carotid arteries and

> cocoa ingredients were injected into their jugular

> veins to cause a

> sharp drop in blood pressure, and another experiment

> in which rabbits

> were fed high-cholesterol diets with varying amounts

> of cocoa and later

> the main blood vessels to their hearts were cut out

> and examined.

>

> The University of California, San Francisco,

> declined immediate comment.

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~

>