Volkswagen, BMW And Daimler Funded Emissions Testing On Monkeys

The Volkswagen Group has apologised in the wake of revelations that experiments partly funded by the German leviathan forced monkeys to inhale diesel fumes.

The European Research Group on Environment and Health in the Transport Sector, better known by its German initials EUGT, operated from a base in Albuquerque in the United States. It reportedly took all of its funding from the Volkswagen Group, Mercedes’ parent company Daimler and BMW.

The purpose was for it to carry out research that would defend the use of cleaner diesel tech, and to that end it hired scientists from around the world.

EUGT has been shut down since 30 June last year after details of its actions had come to light, but they only became public knowledge after a lawsuit was filed in the US.

It’s alleged that EUGT forced monkeys to sit in sealed containers, watching cartoons to keep them placid while they inhaled fumes from a diesel Volkswagen Beetle. Ironically, that Beetle was fitted with emissions cheating software that rendered any results from the experiment null and void anyway, but that sort of animal cruelty is totally unnecessary. Someone will probably – hopefully – be jailed for authorising it.

After the mainstream media picked up on the EUGT’s actions Volkswagen issued a pair of Tweets from its principal English language Twitter account. The company said that it knows that the experiments were wrong and contravened its own ethical standards. It also apologised, and twice noted that the lab had been shut down last year.

Daimler has said it is launching an investigation into what happened and how the “unnecessary and repulsive” tests could have been allowed in the first place, while BMW also distanced itself from this specific trial.

Sources: New York Times, Bloomberg