The year is 2011, and we now know that most tests on animals are not only unnecessary with so many cheaper, more effective technological tests available, but also that such tests are often so unreliable that they lead to putting products on the market that may have been deemed safe for certain animals (of course, safety is a relative term when such test subjects were tortured and murdered to be then dubbed “safe”) but turn out to be completely detrimental to humans.

So why is it that we continue to mutilate small animals in the name of science? The University of Utah is doing some pretty sadistic things to animals in such a manner—things that, if done other any other circumstances, would be considered cruelty to animals and punishable by a fine or jail time.

Along with the Primary Children’s Medical Center (PCMC), the students at the University are shoving hard, plastic tubes down the throats of cats, killing many of them in the process during a science convention.

Can you imagine the sound those cats make during this process? I know my own three cats—whom we consider to be family—screech if you accidentally step on their tails. Now think of your own cats having these tubes shoved down their throats painfully, harshly, and perhaps to the death.

Isn’t it a disturbing thought?

The students are also cutting up and poking needles—and, yes, killing—rabbits, another animal that many of us consider to be family. As a child, I grew up around rabbits, had several of my own, and I know that even though the man we bought them from sold them to people for both pets as well as food sources, he would never have cut them up alive like that.

If you find this torture in the name of science as sick and detestable—as well as unnecessary—as I do, please take a quick moment to send a letter to the university and asking them to update their archaic practices (though nicely, please; you catch more flies with sugar, after all). It might be nice to note that you appreciate that they have important work to carry out, and that using the best, up-to-date technology would help them both execute that work well without having to execute animals in the process. They could also provide great leadership in promoting ethical, compassionate scientific study.