Ford Changes Gears and Conducts Pig Crash Test Despite Assurances

Just as PETA thought that American automakers had finally given up on the mindless use of animals as substitutes for humans in crash tests, the Ford Motor Company was spiraling out of control.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker recently funded a crash test that used the bodies of at least 27 pigs, although no other auto company in the US has done anything like this in years. The gruesome details can be found in a published study: the bodies of pigs, which were killed shortly before the test, were held on top by a wire running through their spine when a pendulum slammed into them.

In this Ford-funded experiment, pigs were killed and their bodies injured by the shock pendulum. Animal-free research methods using modern dummies or human corpses are readily available and used by major car manufacturers.

This isn’t the first time Ford has come to PETA’s radar. After we spoke out against the use of animals in crash tests, Ford assured us in 2009 that it “does not directly conduct or fund the development of products involving testing on live animals, and does not know that it has led such tests over the past three decades “.

This recent test appears to violate that assurance, and a Ford spokesman declined to say whether the company is currently conducting or funding other animal tests.

Pig anatomy is very different from human anatomy, so the data obtained from these horrific animal experiments does not apply to victims of car accidents.

This suggests that no other car manufacturer in the US supports this kind of cruel animal testing anymore. The world has moved on, Ford. There are crash test dummies. There are high-speed computers. Technology has made the barbaric practice of using animals in crash tests obsolete. Animals feel pain and fear and value their lives, just like humans.

Please take the time to TAKE ACTION and demand that Ford Motor Company keep its word by formally adopting a policy permanently prohibiting funding, conducting, commissioning and supporting animal crash tests.