‘Coraline’ Studio LAIKA Is Named After a Dog Forced to Die in Space
To celebrate 15 years since its release, the stop-motion animation movie Coraline was back in theaters in August 2024. It was super-fun to see this cult classic again, but we realized something: The film’s production studio, LAIKA, is named after the first dog sent to space. Her story is heartbreaking af. 💔
Who Was Laika?
Laika was a homeless dog who was captured on the streets of Moscow. Experimenters put her through agonizing “training” procedures, including spinning her in a device, keeping her in a pressure chamber, and locking her inside smaller and smaller cages. They then put her aboard Sputnik 2 and blasted her into space in 1957.
During the launch, Laika was so terrified that her pulse shot up to three times its normal rate. Temps inside the tiny spacecraft soared, and within hours, she cooked to death—all alone and in extreme pain. The experimenters 100% knew they were setting her up for a miserable death, yet they still made her suffer. 😡
What’s Happened Since?
What Laika went through was cruel and inexcusable. Even Oleg Gazenko—one of the lead experimenters who used dogs in the space program—said, “The more time passes, the more I’m sorry about it. We shouldn’t have done it.”
In 1996, PETA got NASA to pull out of Bion—a joint U.S., French, and Russian experiment in which scientists forced monkeys into straitjackets and put electrodes in their bodies before launching them into space. Plus, we got NASA’s plan to give monkeys doses of harmful radiation canceled. But rats, mice, primates, fish, turtles, and other animals continue to be sent into space in cruel experiments. These animals have a right to be treated with respect, as Laika did.
What You Can Do
In memory of Laika—and for all the animals suffering in laboratories across the U.S.—we need our gov to stop wasting money on cruel, pointless experiments on animals. 👏 See how you can urge your members of Congress to support PETA’s Research Modernization Deal:
Text peta2 to 30933 for ways to help animals, tips on compassionate living, and more!
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