Shut Down Cruel Isolation Experiments on Tiny Animals at Macalester College

Psychology students at Macalester College in St. Paul lock small animals in isolation boxes, deprive them of food and water, and force them to perform tasks—or starve to death.

Macalester calls it education, but it’s just pointless cruelty. And it encourages students to start careers as animal experimenters, laying a foundation of callous disregard for the value of a living being.

Macalester uses small, metal “Skinner boxes,” invented by psychologist B.F. Skinner in the 1920s. Students use the device to force animals deprived of food or water for long periods to perform various acts to get the sustenance they need. When they’re done using them in the experiment, they kill the animals.

The means of investigating behavior and brain function have evolved dramatically since the invention of the Skinner box a century ago. Teaching methods, including computer models and hands-on classroom exercises with human volunteers, have largely replaced animal use in psychology education.

Yale, Stanford, and Princeton universities have long abandoned the Skinner box. But Macalester continues to subject animals to these torture devices, against the tide of compassionate progress.

Dr. Neal Barnard, a Macalester graduate and founder of the Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine, discovered Macalester’s grotesque practice while making arrangements to attend his 50th class reunion. Barnard filed a lawsuit against his alma mater, and the Physicians Committee launched billboards near the campus to raise awareness.

What You Can Do

Please TAKE ACTION and tell Macalester that killing animals in century-old torture devices must stop immediately.

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