A woman spent 24 hours in a dog cage that 'smelled like urine' while listening to barking sounds to raise awareness of animal testing. Anne-Marie Barton, who lived streamed the entire experience on Facebook, said she designed the cramped enclosure to look like those found in laboratories.
The 44-year-old completely cleared out her office - located in an outbuilding with no windows - before setting up a crate with hay on the floor. She also sprayed the space with vinegar to replicate the smell of urine before locking herself inside, Manchester Evening News reports.
During her time in the cage, Anne-Marie listened to the constant sound of dogs barking through headphones and only slept for around 20 minutes. Her partner Luke Cottrell, 34, an emotional needs tutor, stayed nearby throughout the experiment and brought her just one meal in the entire 24 hours.
Dog-lover Anne-Marie, from Guilford in Surrey, said she wanted to encourage people to use 'cruelty-free products' and help educate them on 'the cruelty' of animal testing.
The educational needs tutor said: "I wanted to experience what dogs and animals experience in these laboratories as much as possible. The smell of the vinegar - which was meant to replicate urine - was eye-watering and the barking made me feel like there were dogs around me that were in destress and that I was next.
"I'd get a lump on my throat. It was a really lonely experience. I hardly slept, and I just ended up focusing on the hay. I just want to make a difference to help something improve for these animals."
Ann-Marie said she became aware of the treatment of dogs in laboratories in 2020 and started to educate herself on the reality of the situation. The owner of a chocolate Labrador, Max, rescue chug, Woody, and beagle, Benji, became passionate about trying to make a difference and endured her 24-hour cage experiment in May this year.
"Hearing about the treatment of dogs and how lonely they must be was horrendous," she said. "I decided to try and experience what they must go through for myself."
Anne-Marie live-streamed her experience on Facebook to up to 5,000 viewers - chatting through her feelings the whole time. "I think animals also experience trauma and depression like humans," she said. "It was so lonely being cramped in the crate so I can see how they develop certain behaviours.
"My partner brought me one meal during the 24 hours, and I went out for a couple of minutes for toilet breaks. The whole thing was eye-opening. My mind kept going to those poor animals.
"I wanted to encourage people to buy cruelty free and to support places like XCellR8 -which are a non-animal testing laboratory for industries such as cosmetics and chemicals."
Anne-Marie was able to raise £2,400 for XCellR8 with the stunt and was inundated with messages from people telling her how educational they had found it. "I urge people to go cruelty free," she said. "
Ever since finding out more about animal testing these last few years everything has changed for me. I understand both sides and know that it will be a slow change but if anything can be done just to improve animals lives then that would be amazing."
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