The tests at Phillip Morris currently performed on mice have been continuously called out for being unnecessarily painful, archaic, and irrelevant, yet they continue with their practices, which aren’t even required by law, while superior non-animal testing methods are readily available. An example of a daily testing procedure is where mice are shoved into tubes barely larger than their own bodies where they cannot move and have cigarette smoke forced into their noses for hours each day for as long as two years. The results they are hoping to gain from this procedure can easily be obtained in other ways that don’t involve such measures of cruelty. Many other of these poor mice also endure experiments where they have their skin burned off with tar; of course, some of them die from the effects. This is one of the reasons why I have created this petition against Phillip Morris.

Archaic methods like this do not have to be utilized. Forward-thinking scientists have developed humane, modern, and effective non-animal research methods, including human-based microdosing, in vitro technology, human-patient simulators, and sophisticated computer modeling, which are cheaper, faster, and more accurate than animal tests. In fact, Philip Morris’s German laboratories have even developed in vitro methods that use human lung tissue to test their products, but the company’s U.S. counterpart still continues to use cruel and less reliable animal tests.

Lorillard Tobacco, the third-largest manufacturer of cigarettes in the U.S., has banned tobacco tests. In fact, tobacco product tests on animals have been banned entirely in the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, and other countries. In order to eliminate animal testing, Lorillard R&D will use scientifically accepted or validated alternative test methods and technologies that avoid the use of live animals.

We can all agree the world doesn’t need another addictive cigarette so desperately. Everyone already knows smoking is hazardous, and its use should not come at the expense of animals lives. It is a lose-lose situation for everyone, including innocent animals.

To quote the National Cancer Institute, “There is no safe tobacco product.”(14) We already know from clinical research—and from basic common sense—that smoking is bad for us. If you still use tobacco products, seek out companies such as Imperial Tobacco, Nat Sherman, and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco, which have official policies against testing their products on animals.

We humbly ask Phillip Morris to pledge to introduce a protection policy for animals, and we also ask for modern methods of research that better assess the cognitive aspects of testing tobacco that are already available whenever possible.

Thank you.

Shayna Florence.