Students were transported deep into the cosmos, trapped on an alien spaceship during peta2’s “Abduction” virtual reality experience. 

Peta2, the youth division of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, held the sci-fi-themed event in partnership with Bears Animal Advocacy on March 12.

“We are traveling cross country, visiting universities, all of which, unfortunately, have animal experiments going on their campuses,” said Joseph Rondou, PETA’s tour administrator for youth outreach. “So we have this virtual reality experience in which you get abducted by aliens. You then get to see what it feels like to be on the other end of the scalpel and being tested on by another intelligent species. It’s an empathy-building practice, being able to put yourself in the perspective of the unfortunate animals that are being tested.”

Throughout the five-minute experience, aliens put participants through a variety of mysterious, harmful experiments, including a suffocating green gas and bright, blinding lights.

 “Humans are just cruel in general. It’s sad because I know not all of us are that way, but it’s just the people who are in it just for the money. You want to know what made them switch from being kind humans to just greedy people,” junior Brianna Lewis said.

The assortment of trials was representative of how useless the experimentation of animals is.

“What we are talking about right now is experimenting for cures for things like cancer, HIV, heart stroke, sepsis, you name it,” Rondou said. “Unfortunately, the medications and cures that are produced have about a 96-100% fail rate. These numbers are straight from the National Institute of Health. They’re not our numbers. We are talking about an $18 billion-a-year industry.

“We spent $18 billion a year on this animal testing to get almost zero results. 40 percent of that funding comes from tax dollars and we also have a 40 percent that comes from students’ tuition money. So we’re here on campus trying to bring awareness to the students trying to get them involved on a campus level.”

Aside from the virtual reality experience, peta2 also offered a variety of pamphlets and stickers, as well as a petition to help stop the experimentation of animals.

“If we get enough signatures on this petition, and then take it before lawmakers and hopefully get the animals out of the cages, redirect that $18 billion a year to more ethical practices,” Rondou said.

Alongside traveling to college campuses across the US, peta2 also travels to other youth-oriented events such as music festivals.

“We’re a subsidiary of PETA, and we are the youth outreach so ages anywhere from 13 to 24,” Rondou said.

Although PETA has yet to announce further plans with virtual reality, Rondou is confident that something just as exciting is in the works.

“PETA has been going on for 40 years. the plans are endless, to be honest. There’s always something in the works,” he said. 

The virtual reality experience will be touring the US until April 19, but more tours with “Abduction” are planned for later this year.

Students were transported deep into the cosmos, trapped on an alien spaceship during peta2’s “Abduction” virtual reality experience. 

Peta2, the youth division of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, held the sci-fi-themed event in partnership with Bears Animal Advocacy.

“We are traveling cross country, visiting universities, all of which, unfortunately, have animal experiments going on their campuses,” said Joseph Rondou, PETA’s tour administrator for youth outreach. “So we have this virtual reality experience in which you get abducted by aliens. You then get to see what it feels like to be on the other end of the scalpel and being tested on by another intelligent species. It’s an empathy-building practice, being able to put yourself in the perspective of the unfortunate animals that are being tested.”

Throughout the five-minute experience, aliens put participants through a variety of mysterious, harmful experiments, including a suffocating green gas and bright, blinding lights.

 “Humans are just cruel in general. It’s sad because I know not all of us are that way, but it’s just the people who are in it just for the money. You want to know what made them switch from being kind humans to just greedy people,” junior Brianna Lewis said.

The assortment of trials was representative of how useless the experimentation of animals is.

“What we are talking about right now is experimenting for cures for things like cancer, HIV, heart stroke, sepsis, you name it,” Rondou said. “Unfortunately, the medications and cures that are produced have about a 96-100% fail rate. These numbers are straight from the National Institute of Health. They’re not our numbers. We are talking about an $18 billion-a-year industry.

“We spent $18 billion a year on this animal testing to get almost zero results. 40 percent of that funding comes from tax dollars and we also have a 40 percent that comes from students’ tuition money. So we’re here on campus trying to bring awareness to the students trying to get them involved on a campus level.”

Aside from the virtual reality experience, peta2 also offered a variety of pamphlets and stickers, as well as a petition to help stop the experimentation of animals.

“If we get enough signatures on this petition, and then take it before lawmakers and hopefully get the animals out of the cages, redirect that $18 billion a year to more ethical practices,” Rondou said.

Alongside traveling to college campuses across the US, peta2 also travels to other youth-oriented events such as music festivals.

“We’re a subsidiary of PETA, and we are the youth outreach so ages anywhere from 13 to 24,” Rondou said.

Although PETA has yet to announce further plans with virtual reality, Rondou is confident that something just as exciting is in the works.

“PETA has been going on for 40 years. the plans are endless, to be honest. There’s always something in the works,” he said. 

The virtual reality experience will be touring the US until April 19, but more tours with “Abduction” are planned for later this year.