Fort Valley State University Cited by USDA for Falsification of Records After Taking Neighborhood Cats

For Immediate Release:
March 16, 2022

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Vice President Dr. Alka Chandna regarding federal documents that reveal serious animal welfare violations at Fort Valley State University:

Learning that your dog or cat has ended up in a laboratory is the stuff of animal guardians’ nightmares—and laws were put in place more than 50 years ago to safeguard our animal companions from being used as tools of experimentation. But according to a just-posted federal inspection report obtained by PETA, Fort Valley State University appears to think that it’s exempt from these laws. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has cited the university for falsifying records for three kittens (Squash, Pumpkin, and Midnight) and a cat (Shadow) who were used in its laboratories. These felines were plucked from neighborhoods and taken to the school’s laboratories.

The university was also cited for serious—and repeat—failures of its research oversight committee to ensure that proposed experiments did not “unnecessarily duplicate previous experiments” and that the number of animals used in experiments had been justified.

Fort Valley could easily address its scofflaw behavior by modernizing its life sciences program, replacing crude, cruel, and archaic experiments on animals with modern, human-relevant methods, as outlined in PETA’s Research Modernization Deal.

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