Texas A&M Refuses to Confirm or Deny Reported Closure of Dog Laboratory

Records Obtained by PETA Reveal How Peony and Jelly, Dogs Crippled by Muscular Dystrophy, Suffered in the Laboratory

For Immediate Release:
April 5, 2017

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

What on Earth is going on at Texas A&M University (TAMU)? Just last Friday, a spokesperson in the office of President Michael K. Young told several callers, including a PETA staff member, that the muscular dystrophy dog laboratory had closed and all experiments had ended. Now, the university is refusing to confirm this information on the phone or in writing, even to the media.

The school’s refusal comes three months after PETA released video footage recorded inside a laboratory headed by Joe Kornegay, in which golden retrievers and other dogs are deliberately bred to develop a canine form of muscular dystrophy—and about a month after a PETA supporter interrupted Young’s panel at South by Southwest. In the video, the thin, crippled dogs are seen hobbling in barren metal cages. Thirty-five years of these experiments have failed to produce a cure or even a treatment to reverse symptoms.

“Texas A&M is a public university that receives tens of millions of dollars in state and federal funds,” says PETA’s Dr. Alka Chandna. “President Michael K. Young owes it to the public to stop evading direct questions and tell the whole truth.”

In a vague statement released in December that the university has recently released again, TAMU appears deliberately to mislead the public by claiming that the dogs in the video were “already affected by the disease” and that experimenters were helping them. In fact, the animals are deliberately bred to have the disease and are used for a variety of experiments.

PETA has obtained veterinary records and photographs of two of the dogs, Peony and Jelly, used in muscular dystrophy experiments at TAMU. Their profiles describe how they suffered for years before finally being euthanized.

PETA is calling on TAMU to release for adoption the dogs who remain in its laboratory and to commit to cutting-edge, animal-free research methods.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.