University of Michigan sued over refusal to release videos of cruel “forced swim test” experiment

April 8, 2024

Animal Partisan has sued the University of Michigan over its refusal to release videos taken as part of a research study that involved forcing mice to swim in plastic cylinders of water with no chance of escape. Animal Partisan is represented in the lawsuit by John Reynolds of Ahimsa Law in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a law firm whose mission is to champion the rights and welfare of animals, ensuring they have a voice in the legal system.

The lawsuit stems from a December 2023 public records request filed by Animal Partisan under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act. The request, sent to the University of Michigan, requested copies of video recordings taken as part of a 2019 study conducted by members of the university’s Department of Psychiatry. The study, entitled “Stress-sensitive antidepressant-like effects of ketamine in the mouse forced swim test,” was published in 2019. As part of the study, researchers place mice in clear, Plexiglass cylinders and forced them to swim for six minutes while they monitored their desperate attempts to escape. The stated purpose of the study was to test the effect of the drug ketamine on human depression.

The “forced swim test” is an extremely controversial test that researchers have claimed for decades simulates human depression in mice. According to the logic of animal researchers, mice who give up and cease attempting to escape are “depressed” and drugs that cause the mice to swim longer may be helpful in treating depression in humans.

Although commonly used, the test has shown little value in finding remedies for human depression:

• A recent article that looked at the number of citations to studies that relied on the “forced swim test” showed that the test “is not contributing significantly to the understanding or cure of [Major Depressive Disorder].”

• Researchers have stated that there is little “confidence in the likelihood of the test translating well to human outcomes.”

• A paper in the European Journal of Neuroscience concluded that “Indications in this review and elsewhere suggest that the FST is no longer considered the miracle test to predictively validate antidepressant effects, and rightly so.”

• Both the Australian and United Kingdom governments have taken steps to eliminate the test.

• Based on pressure from PETA, numerous drug makers announced they would no longer conduct or fund the “forced swim test.”

But the University of Michigan seems to take a different view of the test and has taken part in repeated studies using this barbaric method. Videos of “forced swim test” experiments conducted elsewhere show mice and rats frantically swimming and clawing at the glass beaker to escape. Others dive to the bottom, looking for escape, or defecate in terror. The video below depicts an example of a “forced swim test” from an unrelated study.

Unwilling to make videos of its cruel experiments public, the University of Michigan denied Animal Partisan’s records request, citing multiple exemptions in the Michigan Freedom of Information Act that deal with trade secrets, commercial information, unpublished research, and similar.

Animal Partisan’s lawsuit alleges that the University of Michigan violated the state’s Freedom of Information Act and improperly applied the law’s exemptions. The lawsuit, filed in the Michigan Court of Claims, asks the court to order the University of Michigan to turn over the videos and pay attorneys fees.

View a copy of the complaint HERE.

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