Texas A&M University Regent to Face Protest Over Dog Experiments
PETA Supporters Will Gather at Mike Hernandez’s D&M Auto Leasing to Call for Lab Closure and Release of Golden Retrievers
For Immediate Release:
September 28, 2020
Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382
On Tuesday, a giant costumed “golden retriever” will lead PETA supporters wearing golden retriever face masks in a spirited, socially distanced protest outside the office of D&M Auto Leasing CEO Mike Hernandez—who is a Texas A&M University (TAMU) System Board of Regents member—to call for the end of the school’s canine muscular dystrophy (MD) experiments on dogs. The protesters will also screen audio footage of dogs barking and crying in TAMU’s laboratory.
When: Tuesday, September 29, 12 noon
Where: D&M Auto Leasing, 1400 W. Seventh St. (at the intersection with Summit Avenue), Fort Worth
Video footage released by PETA in late 2016 shows golden retrievers and other dogs at TAMU who were deliberately bred to develop a crippling and painful form of canine MD struggling to walk, swallow, and even breathe. Under pressure from PETA supporters, 500 physicians, and people with MD, TAMU stopped breeding dogs to develop the disease. The lead experimenter has retired, and many of the nearly 100 dogs were adopted into homes. But the laboratory still keeps 25 dogs—at least 12 of whom are healthy—imprisoned there.
“Texas A&M has no use for these dogs and is apparently refusing to let them go out of spite,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “Regent Mike Hernandez needs to be a leader and shut down this despicable laboratory now.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.
