I work as an assistant to a lead medical director at Jackson Laboratory, and PETA has written plenty of articles about our inhumane treatments of rats. They are tested in everything from toxicology (in which they are slowly poisoned to death) to burn experiments to psychological experiments that induce an onset of emotions. But, there’s plenty social outburst about even testing on rats - calling it inhumane and deemed cruel and unusual.
But, as an assistant to this medical director, I have had to accompany him into a much deeper black hole of information around who we even test on - so cruel and unusual that PETA would rather us test rats. There’s one specific department in the Jackson Laboratory that is strictly run by Military Contractors, biochemists, nuclear enthusiasts, etc. You name it, they are there. And what they test is the effects of binuclear weapons, gasses, and modified formulas of Sodium thiopental or pentobarbital on multiple living organisms. One of the most common gasses in the oil and gas industry is Sulphur dioxide, and the current mission set of the lab is to find a variant of SO2 that can penetrate any gas mask or protective layer, but can also be transported into foreign oil and fuel supply to almost start a global epidemic. Oil and Gas is everything for military conflict - I mean, its fuel for cars, tanks, aircrafts.
So, now that the Sulphur dioxide variant has entered it’s developing stage, that means there are plenty prototypes being tested out.
We don’t test them on rats, but death row inmates. The idea of lethal injection is a hoax - it’s a sedative liquid (like a more severe version of GHB - often referred to as liquid ecstasy) we inject the inmates with and take them to one of these CBRN labs. From there, we run diagnostics about what their bodies can handle in terms of physical exercise. Sometimes, we train them to become the average military male/female to create more accurate results - someone who is obese and unhealthy will have different reactions than a healthy individual.
For reference, our most recent “experiment” was a prototype of the Sulphur Dioxide. The prototype was named SO2PL-0087-ZLM. It was modified by adding a multitude of chemicals to make more of a corrosive fume that can penetrate plastics, glass, and any other type of material that would be used to capture the gas and transport it for testing. The only way this gas is tested and transported is through a special case made of steel, concrete, and any other material more than four inches thick. We have had accidents with the gas before where the handler made a mistake transporting it, and the laboratory was evacuated and vacuums were used to capture the gas and store it further underground where it was sealed. So, if that seal were to break, we would all be gassed from the vents we walks over. Not very smart, but the containment is a work in progress that is not in my specialty field.
The inmate, Marem Reeves, was sentenced to death for three first-degree counts of rape and three first-degree counts of murder. The court system pretty much considered him a serial murderer and rapist. He had past history of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and was a registered sex offender. He committed these three serial crimes within one week at the age of 51, and was caught by police who found a small article of clothing being revealed from the trunk of his sedan. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection, and pleaded guilty to the court with no negotiation to his sentence. He even tried to represent himself in court.
So, as of now, he did receive his death sentence, but in a very cruel way. For someone like him though, you would think it was a mercy.
He was placed in an elevator that had one titanium protected camera on each corner of the elevator. He was then lowered into an area that was then sealed with six layers of modified glass (we call it the Clear Steel), and watched from above while one or two scientists watched from below. Inside the elevator with him was a German Shepard (commonly used in military environments) and, vegetation, and livestock. The purpose of such is to test the potential harm we could cause to enemy recourse. It was like a miniature jungle down there.
When the gas was released, it was an agonizing process. Some animals dropped instantly, the plants withered and died, the dog fell over and slowly stopped breathing, but the inmate had become completely paralyzed. When he finally tipped over, his whole body was convulsing. Upon an autopsy report, his lungs, and to our surprise, his liver, small intestine, and cranium had completely ruptured. The scientists were unsatisfied, saying the process was the outcome they had wanted but it took too long for the subject to die. The inmate was alive for 17 minutes, 46 seconds, and had suffered brain damage upon 5 minutes to exposure.
This was one of many, and now that I am here in this industry I am prohibited to leave. But, PETA isn’t doing enough research because rats are getting merciful deaths.