Animal Welfare Violations at the University of Maryland–Baltimore: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
January 10, 2022

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding federal documents that reveal serious animal welfare violations—including an incident in which a monkey’s tongue was bitten by another monkey—at the University of Maryland–Baltimore:

The University of Maryland–Baltimore’s (UMB) carelessness amounts to animal abuse and must not be allowed to continue. According to a just-posted federal inspection report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture obtained by PETA, a monkey at UMB escaped from his cage and most of his tongue was bitten off by a stressed monkey in an adjacent cage. This injury will mean that the monkey will experience considerable pain and distress for the rest of his life.

The university was also cited for failures of its oversight committee to review proposed experiments on baboons adequately. The committee approved experiments in which experimenters would cut babies out of pregnant baboons multiple times over three years, in violation of regulations.

In addition, UMB was just cited in September 2021 after a monkey in its laboratories died of thirst in what must have been an excruciatingly painful and terrifying death. Last year, the university received $223,277,586 from the National Institutes of Health—and about half of that money was directed toward experiments on animals. Enough is enough. UMB should shut down its animal laboratories and ban the use of animals entirely.

For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.