PETA Files NIH Complaint Against the University of Arizona After USDA Citations

For Immediate Release:
April 5, 2022

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding the inspection report posted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) against the University of Arizona for its critical violations of federal animal welfare regulations:

The citations issued by the USDA won’t undo the pain and trauma endured by the three lambs who died after a worker administered a drug in more than seven times the recommended dose, but it shows that the university shouldn’t be trusted with even one more penny of taxpayer funding for experiments on animals. PETA has filed a complaint with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), calling on it to turn off the money spigot to the school. The University of Arizona failed to ensure that personnel were adequately qualified to handle animals—and as a result, the lambs experienced muscle tremors and other symptoms of acute toxicity before dying 30 to 60 minutes after the drug was administered. In a separate incident, a bat escaped after an experimenter failed to handle her securely. The bat was injured during the search and had to be euthanized.

Last year, the University of Arizona received $166,243,166 from NIH—and about half of that money was directed toward experiments on animals. The university must redirect its resources toward modern, non-animal research methods that will actually help humans, and we urge officials there to adopt PETA’s Research Modernization Deal.

For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.