PETA Files NIH Complaint Against Duke University After Recent Violations

For Immediate Release:
August 17, 2022

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement by PETA Vice President Dr. Alka Chandna regarding Duke University’s recent violations of animal welfare regulations, including the apparent deaths of two puppies and the failure to feed pigs for an entire weekend:

It’s stunning that Duke University employees starved pigs over an entire weekend and couldn’t even manage to get a veterinarian to assist a dog with a difficult birth. According to the inspection report, an experimenter’s failure “may have led to the loss of two of the four pups.” Duke—which received more than $731 million last year from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—is unable or unwilling to comply with minimum animal welfare laws. PETA has filed a complaint with NIH, calling on it to turn off the money spigot to the school.

Last year, Duke used tens of thousands of animals in its laboratories, including 677 rabbits, 317 hamsters, 182 monkeys, 173 ferrets, 28 dogs, and four cats. According to federal reports, 1,433 animals in Duke’s laboratories were used in painful experiments and of these, 366 weren’t given adequate pain relief. These animals feel pain and value their lives just as much as any Duke employee, so the university would do well to modernize its research program by leaving cruel and archaic experiments on animals behind and using only sophisticated, human-relevant research methods instead. 

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