PETA Files NIH Complaint Against Virginia Tech After USDA Violations

For Immediate Release:
April 5, 2022

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Blacksburg, Va. –

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding citations posted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture against Virginia Tech for its violations of federal animal welfare regulations.

It’s disgraceful that Virginia Tech failed to maintain its animal experimentation oversight committee properly. These committees are the last line of defense for animals in laboratories, and as federal records obtained by PETA prove, this violation puts animals at risk: Virginia Tech’s veterinarian should have been able to relieve the suffering of a very ill calf but didn’t have access to euthanasia solution. Dogs in the university’s laboratories had no regular program of veterinary care, and bats were transported across the country in containers without proper ventilation. PETA filed a complaint with the National Institutes of Health, urging it to suspend all funding to Virginia Tech until the school proves that it can abide by animal protection laws and regulations.

Virginia Tech must redirect its resources toward modern, non-animal research methods that will actually help humans, and we urge its officials 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.