Protests have stopped an experiment that involved pigs being buried alive in the Western Austrian Alps to find out how people die in avalanches. Scientists at the Institute of Mountain Emergency Medicine in Bolzano, Italy and the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria have been burying live pigs in the snow to ascertain if humans suffer brain damage when trapped in air pockets during avalanches.
Some pigs were being buried completely and suffocated, while others were covered up to their necks to freeze to death, according to USA Today.
Hermann Brugger, in charge of the experiments, insisted that that the pigs do not suffer as they are sedated prior to the experiment. However, animal rights activists have called the experiments cruel and unnecessary and have successfully halted the experiments, at least temporarily.
"People are shocked and outraged that such cruel experiments can even be carried out in Austria," said Gerda Matias, president of the International Union of Animal Experiment Opponents.
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