PETA Calls For State Audit of CU-Boulder, CU-Anschutz After COVID-19-Related Animal Killings

Following Euthanasia of Animals as Part of COVID-19 Response Plan, Group Questions Why ‘Unnecessary’ Experiments Were Ever Conducted

For Immediate Release:
August 20, 2020

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Today, PETA requested that the state auditor assess the use of public money, personnel, property, equipment, and space by the University of Colorado–Boulder (CU-Boulder) and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (CU-Anschutz) for experiments on animals whom the schools deemed to be “unnecessary” in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In its letter, PETA notes that in the last fiscal year, the universities received $169 million in state appropriations, some of which may have gone toward funding animal experiments that were ultimately postponed or canceled. In April, CU-Anschutz asked its staff to “plan for potential phased reductions of research activities with animals,” and CU-Boulder instructed experimenters to “[i]dentify any research experiments or animal breeding that can be potentially ramped down, curtailed or delayed.” The university also apparently told experimenters that the Office of Animal Resources “will euthanize unnecessary breeders,” which likely led to the killing of hundreds or more animals.

“The University of Colorado’s experiments on animals were undoubtedly cruel, but apparently not even the school can justify them,” says PETA Vice President Shalin Gala. “PETA is calling on state officials to follow the money and prevent waste—and suffering—in the future.”

Numerous published studies have shown that animal experimentation wastes resources and lives, as more than 90% of basic scientific research—much of it involving animal experimentation—fails to lead to treatments for humans. (Please read under “Lack of benefit for humans” here.) And 95% of new medications that are found to be safe and effective in animals fail in human clinical trials.

PETA’s letter to State Auditor Dianne E. Ray is available upon request. The group—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or click here.