Report: China has been using pigs as crash test dummies

Researchers in China have apparently been using live pigs as a substitution for crash dummies for testing the potential impact of automobile collisions.

According to a report from the Daily Mail, 15 juvenile pigs were buckled into seats for high-speed simulations in testing that resulted in seven immediate deaths.

The swine that survived the wrecks sustained various injuries including bleeding, lacerations and internal bruising.

In the hours leading up to the testing, the pigs were reportedly denied food and water.

The United States previously used pigs and other animals during crash tests, but that was abolished in the 1990s, the publication reported.

Outrage as as LIVE PIGS are used as crash test dummies and killed in 'cruel' 30mph simulations in China https://t.co/ak0Qs0BMnP pic.twitter.com/dxKkg7c6hD

— Veg Alerts (@vegalerts) November 1, 2019

Animal rights group PETA is credited with helping stop the practice by putting pressure on companies like General Motors and others that harmed animals during testing.

“It is horrifying to look back now and imagine that animals were deliberately slammed into walls at high speeds in car-crash tests. Yet, without PETA’s campaign, the public may have remained in the dark for years as these twisted experiments continued,” the company told Daily Mail in a statement.

The group added that China is enacting a “cruel” and “unjustifiable” practice.

“Despite the existence of sophisticated animal-free models, experimenters continue to fasten abused, frightened animals into car seats and crash them into walls until their bodies are bloody, bruised and mangled,” said PETA’s Zachary Toliver. He added that the animals that survive are later killed and dissected.

Toliver also questioned the validity of the results since the anatomy of pigs is so drastically different than that of humans, starting with their respective statures.

“Pigs don’t naturally sit up in car seats. … so the data obtained from these horrific experiments aren’t applicable to human car-crash victims.”

He said American car companies figured that out decades ago.