peta2, the youth branch of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), runs Abduction, a touring virtual reality exhibit that puts university students in the place of animals used in laboratory experiments. Students put on a headset and go through a roughly five-minute experience built around an alien-abduction metaphor, with the aim of building empathy for animals in labs. Tour administrator Ariana Azoulai says peta2 hopes it inspires empathy and change because animal testing is cruel and ineffective.
How the exhibit works
The experience is delivered from a mobile VR studio: a branded box truck with an open side, a reclining chair for the participant, and a desert-themed backdrop. Crew members set up and break down the studio each day, hand out leaflets about animals in laboratories and staff a table beside the truck. peta2's recruitment page mentions an Oculus headset, and a 2025 photo from the tour shows a standalone headset of the Quest 3 type.
Tour and reach
peta2 says Abduction first launched in fall 2022. Its figures, from an undated recruitment page, are:
- more than 50 US universities visited since launch, including Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Arizona State University
- over 5,000 students "abducted", meaning they went through the VR experience
The Purdue Exponent reported on 27 October 2026 that the tour had reached Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and that peta2 would continue to other universities across the United States. These figures are peta2's own and have not been independently checked.
