VICTORY! Finished! Done! Over! Texas A&M to Release the 9 Healthy Golden Retrievers for Adoption!

Gutted! That’s the only way to describe Texas A&M University’s canine muscular dystrophy laboratory.

Exposed! First, we released video footage showing the horrors of the laboratory.

Stopped! Then we ended the breeding program that had produced dozens of sick golden retrievers afflicted with a canine form of muscular dystrophy.

Saved! More than 50 dogs were released for adoption.

Finished! The lead experimenter retired. The funding dried up.

Now the last nine healthy dogs transferred from the laboratory are going to real homes.

PETA was determined to free all the healthy dogs released from this laboratory. But even though Texas A&M had promised that all the dogs would be released for adoption, PETA obtained records showing that nine healthy dogs had been betrayed and transferred to the veterinary school teaching program instead!

We never gave up on these golden retrievers. We campaigned hard—and now the dogs will be in homes before the end of the year!

This victory was hard-fought. Here’s how we did it.

PETA first exposed the laboratory in late 2016, with the release of video footage revealing that golden retrievers and other dogs had been deliberately bred to develop a crippling and painful form of canine muscular dystrophy. Many of the dogs struggled to walk and were forced to eat a soupy gruel, as solid food was too difficult for them to swallow. They were used in painful experiments involving biopsies and a device that stretched their muscle tissue. Despite 40 years of these experiments, no cure for muscular dystrophy has been developed.

PETA’s campaign involved multiple colorful protests on campus; various federal complaints and lawsuits, including a groundbreaking First Amendment lawsuit settled in PETA’s favor; airplane banners, TV ads, and billboards; and disruptions of sporting events and meetings of the Board of Regents.

Five hundred physicians along with numerous scientists, veterinarians, and people with MD joined PETA’s campaigns, as did numerous celebrities, including Sir Paul McCartney, James Cromwell, Bill Maher, Lily Tomlin, Pamela Anderson, Casey Affleck, Richard Linklater, Nikki Sixx, and Ryan Tannehill.

Thanks to the more than 6 million messages that PETA supporters sent Texas A&M demanding that the administration take action to help the ailing dogs, 60 dogs in total have been or will soon be freed from this laboratory, with the promise of a better future.

Thank you to all our supporters who helped win this historic victory for dogs in laboratories.

Now please take a minute to urge Harvard University to close Margaret Livingstone’s laboratory. She has spent her entire 40-year career tearing baby monkeys away from their mothers and sewing their eyes shut—or making sure they never see a human or monkey face—just to see how badly it damages their brain and visual development.