Rise Against drummer Brandon Barnes has sent a letter to his undergraduate college, University of Colorado - Boulder to protest their use of animals. Students at CU-Boulder currently decapitate frogs, force frightened rats to swim in water mazes, and cut open live rats to expose their hearts, even though "superior non-animal methods exist and undergraduate science classes at CU-Denver are taught without using, hurting, or killing any animals.." Brandon says:

After spending the last 14 years playing drums in the band Rise Against, whose primary messages are about fighting injustice, I feel compelled to weigh in on this important issue. Treating other sensitive, intelligent beings like disposable laboratory equipment is wrong, and … I know that there must be better ways to teach undergraduates than by having them needlessly torment, maim, and kill hundreds of animals.