Roaches are sentient beings who exist for their own reasons, but Backyard Brains only sees them as a way to make money. The company sells live cockroaches and mutilation kits as cruel "science projects" for kids.
Cockroaches are fascinating and intelligent animals—they groom themselves constantly, have unique personalities, and try their best to avoid humans.
But according to the Backyard Brains instructional video for its "RoboRoach" kit, live roaches are to be placed in ice-cold water until they stop moving.
Next, it instructs kids to use sandpaper to scour away each live roach's protective waxy exoskeleton.
Kids are then supposed to add superglue and electrodes to the defenseless animal …
… and stab the roach with a needle to insert an electrode into the thorax.
Finally, the video instructs viewers to chop off an antenna and insert another electrode.
The result is a permanently damaged roach …
… who's treated like a slave and controlled with an iPhone.
Whether you like them or not, cockroaches are living, feeling animals—and it's not OK to torment and mutilate them just because we can. These "experiments" teach kids the dangerous lesson that animals who aren't soft and cuddly don't deserve compassion.
Please, tell the cofounder of Backyard Brains to stop torturing roaches.