Remote-Controlling Cockroaches is Against Law - PETA

Cockroaches, those nasty critters have been beaten, squashed, crushed and smashed for ages. But, do they really deserve to be mutilated and implanted with electrodes only to be controlled by little kids?

Backyard Brains' The RoboRoach kit is not just unethical, but also illegal, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) says.

PETA has criticized an Ann Arbor-based company, the Backyard Brains. The agency said that the neuroscience-startup is doing terrible things to the bugs in the name of science.

The device in question is called The RoboRoach kit that gives kids a chance to create their very own franken-roaches just for $99.99. The entire process includes dipping the bugs into ice water, then chopping most of their antennae, implanting electrodes in them and then superglueing a tiny headset on their heads. The cyber-bugs receive three-volt jolts which helps the controller manoeuvre them. Currently, the kit comes with a remote control; the next versions would allow control via smartphone, Time reported.

PETA has filed a formal complaint with the Michigan attorney general to check if controlling movements of a cockroach is in violation of the state's Public Health Code and the Insect, Pest, and Plant Disease Act. The agency said that the kit is enabling people to practice veterinary medicine without a license, which is a felony,

"Cockroaches are living beings with the ability to feel pain-not inanimate objects for kids or anyone else to stab and cut apart for 'fun,'" said general counsel to PETA Jeffrey Kerr in a press release. "The RoboRoach kit teaches kids the dangerous lesson that it's OK to hurt and torment animals-something that PETA believes is not only never OK but also clearly illegal in this case."

Backyard Brains' co-founder Greg Gage said that the ice-water desensitizes the critter and ensures that it has a painless operation. The effect of the electrodes recedes in about a fortnight, after which the bugs are back to normal.

'We're not breaking any laws," he told Time. "These are roaches that people would easily kill in their apartments."

Marc Bekoff, emeritus professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, in his article in Livescience, said that the kit sends all kinds of wrong messages to the society including that it is okay to torture insects and that neuroscience can be done at home. He argues that insects can feel pain, which makes the entire idea of cutting them up a bad idea. And, even if these bugs couldn't feel pain, it would still be an unnecessary, invasive procedure to fix electrodes in them.