Feds Funding Lawbreaking Laboratory That Harms Animals; PETA Demands Accountability 

For Immediate Release:
June 12, 2024

Contact:
Sydney Rader 202-483-7382

In a letter sent today, PETA is calling on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to stop funding MRIGlobal, a contract testing laboratory in Kansas City, after the feds found a raft of animal welfare violations there for the second time in just five months. The company receives millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded contracts. 

A just-released report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reveals the following: 

• The body temperature of a “minipig” dropped dangerously low while under anesthesia because no staffer was monitoring the animal for hours, nor was anyone trained to do so.
• Four guinea pigs sustained injuries, including a severe knee injury and front and rear leg fractures, because MRIGlobal staffers kept them in “beddingless” enclosures that allowed their extremities to become entrapped. The animals were then pulled from the experiment and killed.

“MRIGlobal is apparently unable to follow simple instructions or provide the bare minimum safety standards to prevent animal injuries and death,” says PETA Vice President Shalin Gala. “The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services should cancel all current and future contracts with MRIGlobal, which doesn’t deserve a single penny of taxpayer money.” 

An August 3, 2023, report from the USDA stated that staffers gave 32 rabbits the wrong dosage of eye drops, causing them unrelieved pain. All the rabbits were killed. In addition, the USDA cited the facility after staffers injected two long-tailed macaques with an experimental substance in the wrong muscle. The monkeys were euthanized. Other violations involved four beagles who were at risk for severe dehydration and rabbits who sustained injuries from improper caging.  

PETA has also called on the U.S. Department of Defense to cancel its contracts with MRIGlobal. 

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.