For immediate release:
Jul 15, 2021
Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382
Amherst, Massachusetts. – After receiving federal reports revealing widespread animal welfare violations at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) laboratories, and internal documents indicating that university officials are reluctant to modernize their research program, PETA is contacting the school’s board of trustees. IN letter Posted today, PETA urged trustees to direct UMass to resume discussions with the group about modernizing its research program and implementing animal-free testing methods.
Federal reports, obtained at the FOIA request to the National Institutes of Health, document violations of federal animal welfare rules: mice drowned, birds starved to death, and zebrafish died from overheating. In one case, the experimenters were unable to anesthetize the patient. several hundred mice that have just undergone the operation. And the experimenters neglected to treat the hamsters, which were bred for early heart failure, with the result that some of them were so weak that they could not reach food or water.
“UMass has a terrible track record of caring for animals, which further jeopardizes already crappy experiments,” says PETA senior director Katie Guillermo. “PETA is urging trustees to step in and force the administration to modernize – and our scientists are ready to help.”
PETA has been contacted by numerous University of Massachusetts alumni and donors concerned about the treatment of primates in its laboratories. (See video here.) However, internal correspondence between school officials received by PETA suggests that the university never intended to make any improvements recommended by PETA scientists and only met because his donors were worried
PETA, whose motto is in part that “animals are not ours to experiment on” – opposes arrogance, a worldview focused on human excellence. For more information please visit PETA.org or subscribe to the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram…