Activists pretend to be dead at UC Berkeley to protest animal testing

The protest, called a 'die-in,' was hosted by the international animal rights activism group Direct Action Everywhere.

Activists called the 15-person turnout 'fantastic,' and evidence that public opinion on animal rights is changing.

A group of animal rights activists at University of California - Berkeley pretended to be dead while protesting animal testing in the school labs.

About 15 activists sprawled out on the ground in front of Sproul Hall Tuesday, according to an article in The Daily Californian, the school’s official student newspaper.

The protest, called a “die-in,” was hosted by the international animal rights activism group Direct Action Everywhere.

“UC Berkeley is a place of terrible suffering for anyone who isn’t a human,” activist Brian Burns told the Daily Cal.

“Just because someone is different from you — be it a dog, a cat, a pig or a rat — does not mean they deserve to be hurt or killed,” he continued.

Burns called the 15-person turnout “fantastic,” and evidence that public opinion on animal rights is changing.

But Berkeley neuroscience professor John Ngai disagreed, saying that animal testing is “inescapable” if society wants to pursue advances in medicine.

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