University Records Reveal Dogs at Texas A&M Lab Caged for Nearly a Decade
PETA Calls For Release of Ailing Dogs Denied Exercise, Tormented for Years in Cruel Canine Muscular Dystrophy Experiments
For Immediate Release:
January 21, 2020
Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382
This morning, PETA revealed the miserable lives endured by five dogs at a Texas A&M University (TAMU) laboratory who have spent nearly 10 years caged alone and been deprived of companionship and even normal exercise. The group is urging TAMU to release these and all other dogs who remain at the school’s canine muscular dystrophy (MD) laboratory to be adopted into good homes.
In a letter to TAMU, PETA describes dogs Bruno, Ganondorf, Jambi, and Pee Wee, all of whom were bred to be afflicted with canine MD. Records obtained by PETA show that they’ve spent their lives suffering from recurring infections, respiratory ailments, organ failure, and muscle atrophy. Some of them have been unable to eat properly for days at a time. Lucilla, a dog who carries the gene for MD, was artificially inseminated dozens of times in order to produce litters of sick puppies. Between January and November 2019, these dogs were let out of their runs, at most, three times a month. Pee Wee saw the outside of his run just 17 times in 11 months.
“Ten years of suffering must end right now,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “PETA is calling on Texas A&M to release these dogs into loving homes where they could finally experience some kindness in the time they have left.”
Under pressure from 500 physicians, humans with MD, and PETA supporters, TAMU recently stopped breeding the dogs, but the experiments continue—even though for nearly 40 years, they’ve failed to produce a cure or treatment that reverses muscular dystrophy symptoms in humans. Honorary PETA Director Pamela Anderson has personally offered to adopt all the surviving dogs.
The group’s letter to TAMU is available upon request. PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview that fosters violence toward other animals. The group’s protests at TAMU can be viewed here.
