University of Kent Pledges No Sepsis Experiments on Animals, Earning PETA Praise

22 September 2025

University of Kent Pledges No Sepsis Experiments on Animals, Earning PETA Praise

Kent – After hearing from PETA about how animals suffer in cruel and ineffective sepsis experiments, the University of Kent has confirmed that it will not use animals in any future sepsis research, becoming the first UK institution to make this commitment to PETA.

Sepsis is a life-threatening reaction to infection that progresses rapidly and kills more people in the UK each year than breast, bowel, and prostate cancer combined. Despite many leading scientists agreeing that using animals in sepsis experiments is ineffective and hinders the development of human-relevant treatments for the condition, some experimenters in the UK continue to use these cruel, scientifically invalid tests on animals. The animals are typically cut open, their intestines punctured so faecal matter leaks into their abdomen, before being stitched up and left to suffer as sepsis destroys their organs.

“Slicing open tiny, terrified animals and forcing faeces to leak into their bellies is a gruesome and wholly unnecessary experiment that no institution should want to be associated with,” says PETA’s Head of Science Policy, Dr. Julia Baines. “PETA applauds the University of Kent for doing right by mice, rats, and other animals and urges other universities to follow in its compassionate and evidence-driven footsteps by pledging not to conduct sepsis experiments on animals.”

Mice and rats are intelligent, highly social animals who live in tight-knit groups and have complex social hierarchies. Animals used in sepsis experiments may endure fever, chills, diarrhoea, difficulty breathing, lethargy, disorientation, shock, and multiple organ failure before they are killed. PETA notes that sepsis in humans is distinct from sepsis in other animals, making the results of such experiments misleading and irrelevant to sepsis patients who desperately need effective treatments.

PETA anti-vivisection campaigner, and Kent local, Reuben Skeats, is available for interviews.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on” – is calling on the government to end cruel sepsis experiments on animals, and points out that Every Animal Is Someone. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.

Contact:

Lucy Watson +44 (0) 20 7837 6327; [email protected]

#