Animals Suffocate to Death, Live in Filth at UAB Laboratories; PETA Files Complaint

For Immediate Release:
March 4, 2024

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see PETA Vice President Dr. Alka Chandna’s statement regarding the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s citations of the University of Alabama–Birmingham for numerous violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act, including three ferrets who suffocated to death, a monkey who required multiple amputations after sustaining severe burns in an incident staff didn’t notice for nearly a week, and filth-covered laboratory equipment and animal cages:

The wholesale neglect and incompetence that staff and experimenters at the University of Alabama–Birmingham (UAB) demonstrate would get them immediately fired from any Quickie-Mart, yet they continue to siphon taxpayer dollars by the fistful to torment animals in filthy conditions. This abuse has to stop. Today, PETA is calling for an immediate investigation by the National Institutes of Health and urges the agency to stem the tide of tax money flowing to UAB.

U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors found that for four days, staffers failed to notice that a monkey was burned so badly that the amputation of three toes, a portion of another, and the tip of the tail were required. Another monkey was euthanized after being attacked by a stressed escaped monkey. Three ferrets suffocated to death, and five others had symptoms of asphyxiation after tar from a cigarette experiment clogged what little fresh air they were allowed. Inspectors found animal cages caked with feces mixed with food, water leaking from the ceiling, a discolored puddle on the floor, open trash cans, dead cockroaches, and a “large amount of rodent feces” on equipment, according to a just-released inspection report.

The university should get out of the business of tormenting animals and redirect its resources toward modern, non-animal research methods that will actually help humans. We urge the school to adopt PETA’s Research Modernization Deal.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.