A woman raising awareness of animal testing spent 24 hours in a dog cage listening to barking sounds and spraying vinegar onto the hay-covered floor to smell like urine.
Anne-Marie Barton, 44, who live-streamed herself inside the cage, said she wanted to recreate the experience of an animal bred in a laboratory and used for testing to educate others. So she stripped out her office, which has no windows and is separate to her house, and put down hay inside a cramped metal crate.
Then Anne-Marie played sounds of dogs barking on a loop through headphones she was wearing and only slept for around 20 minutes the whole time - getting out of the cage only for a couple of short toilet breaks.
Her partner, Luke Cottrell, 34, an emotional needs tutor, was on hand throughout and brought her only one meal during the experience. 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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