More than 5,000 petition slips have been sent to the UK branch of Mars in a bid to get the company in the US to stop funding painful and deadly tests on mice, rats, guinea pigs and rabbits. What really rattles us and is that these experiments aren’t even required by law and violate Mars’ own written policy. Try that on for size! So steer clear of M&M’s, Snickers, Twix, Milky Way, Starburst, Skittles and other Mars products (like this school-kid did) until Mars commits to a permanent international ban on conducting and funding tests on animals. In the meantime, get your sugar fix from other goodies, like the delicious selection at the Vegan Store (think vegan ‘Mars’ bars and chocolate covered ‘marshmallows’. Drool…).

Anyway, back to the serious stuff, in a letter sent with the petitions, we urge Mars to forward the slips to the company’s US president and ask if similar tests are being conducted in the UK. And this is something we would all want to know about, as PETA US discovered that just a handful of tests which Mars has funded include:

• Rabbits forced to eat high-cholesterol diets with cocoa. Later, the animals were killed, and the primary blood vessels connected to their hearts were removed and examined.
• Rats force-fed through plastic tubes, which were shoved down their throats. Then the rats were cut open and killed.
• Plastic tubes were surgically attached to guinea pigs’ carotid arteries, and cocoa ingredients were injected into their jugular veins.
• Mice were forced to swim in a pool of water and paint. To avoid drowning, they had to find a hidden platform – only to be killed later.

Turning animals into cocoa junkies, eh? All for a chocolate bar. Think I’ll pass thanks, will you?

Well if this story didn’t make me burst into a neon beam of a smile… If you’re sick of all the childhood drink, drugs, sex and crime stories circulating our gem of a country, this should put back your faith in the younger generation. 11-year-old Gaby Trotter from Flintshire, Wales, is taking on Mars by trying to get their products banned from her school. She says in her local newspaper, “I was talking to my friend and she told me about this website about Mars funding tests on animals and I didn’t like what they’re doing. I looked into it and decided not to have any more Mars products.” And now she wants her school to follow suit. Now I wonder where her friend came across the information about Mars testing on animals…

As the Chinese Year of the Rat approaches, PETA Asia-Pacific is calling on compassionate consumers around the globe to give a thought for the furry little rodents. Yes, some may find them scary, but in fact rats are really rather cute. You only have to look at the picture below to see that!

It’s time to treat them with respect and get them out of laboratories for good. How can you do this? By boycotting cruel companies that insist on testing on rats and mice! The biggest target of the moment is Mars Inc., who produce M&M’s, Snickers and other chocolaty bars and sweets.

Reasons we love rats:

Rats laugh and express joy. Recent studies have shown that when rats play or are playfully tickled, they make chirping sounds that are strikingly similar to human laughter.

Rats are fastidiously clean animals who groom themselves throughout the day. They even naturally smell a bit like perfume!

In Imperial Chinese culture, the rat is the first of the Chinese zodiac’s 12 animals. People born in the Year of the Rat are said to possess the rat’s qualities of creativity, honesty, generosity, ambition and the ability to get along well with others.

I’m born in the Year of the Rat – so that explains where I get it from…

Image credit: The Patriotic Gentleman/Creative Commons