The tobacco industry has taken a lot of heat from smokers who blame cigarette manufacturers for their smoking-related illnesses; but if anyone has reason to sue the big tobacco companies, it's the animals.
Joe Camel isn't the only animal who smokes. For decades, experimenters have repeatedly performed inhumane and irrelevant smoking-related tests on animals. Although animals would never normally encounter or imbibe tobacco on their own, dogs, primates, guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits, lambs, chickens, and other animals are mutilated, pumped full of nicotine, and forced to inhale smoke.
Dogs, for example, are forced to inhale cigarette smoke on mechanical ventilators. In one experiment, vivisectors cut holes in beagles' throats and made them breathe concentrated cigarette smoke for an entire year. Experimenters have also inserted electrodes into dogs' penises to measure the effect of cigarette smoke on their sexual performance. Masks are strapped on to the faces of rats and mice and cigarette smoke is pumped directly into their noses. Rhesus monkeys are confined to chairs with head devices and exposed to nicotine and caffeine to determine how these substances affect breathing.
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