PETA Seeks to Defund Wake Forest University’s Laboratories After Federal Citations

For Immediate Release:
June 7, 2023

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

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

It’s difficult to say whether it’s worse when Wake Forest University laboratory staff actually pay attention to the animals they imprison or when they don’t, because both have tragic outcomes. PETA has filed a complaint with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), calling on the agency to turn off the money spigot to the school after incompetence and neglect by Wake Forest staff were revealed in a just-posted report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

For nine days, Wake Forest staff gave nine monkeys daily medication intended for different monkeys and forced eight others to endure procedures under anesthesia that were also intended for other monkeys. In addition, inspectors cited staff for ignoring two monkeys for eight months while they wasted away and for leaving four other monkeys without water for four days, never checking on them but falsifying records to say that they had.

Wake Forest 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. The school should never again be trusted with monkeys or any other animals.

In 2022, the university and its affiliated Wake Forest University Health Sciences received more than $137 million from NIH, despite being unable or unwilling to comply with even the most basic animal welfare regulations afforded by federal law.

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