TAMU, Tell the Truth About Your Shameful Dog Laboratory!

Published November 28, 2017 by PETA Staff. Last Updated April 2, 2024.

3 min read

Update: Texas A&M (TAMU) can try to evade the truth about the way that dogs imprisoned in its muscular dystrophy (MD) laboratory are made to have that terrible disease, but we’ve got the documents that show the cruel reality of their situation.

PETA recently obtained a chart from the school documenting the births of 61 puppies in Kornegay’s laboratory between October 11, 2015, and the present. Thirty-six of them were born this year—at the very time when the university was insisting that it wasn’t engaged in selective breeding of dogs to have MD.

Ever since PETA released disturbing video footage of dogs in Joe Kornegay’s laboratory at TAMU, the university has attempted to mislead the public, the media, and its own academic community by refusing to admit that experimenters have purposely bred golden retrievers to have the disease so that they could then use these animals in painful experiments.

For instance, TAMU had the audacity to tell a local TV station that “[a]ffected dogs are born with the disease and are not artificially made to be ‘sick.’”

And get a load of this statement posted on a TAMU website.

Well, TAMU, let’s see if you can argue with your own records.

Some of the dogs imprisoned at TAMU have endured the misery and loneliness that accompany their impoverished living conditions for years. While the university has lacked the decency to provide these pitiful dogs with even a blanket, it should at least have the integrity not to misrepresent its actions to the public and its own community.

Originally posted on April 4, 2017:

It looks like Texas A&M University (TAMU) is either too scared or too ashamed to tell the truth about its muscular dystrophy (MD) dog laboratory, in which golden retrievers and other dogs are bred to develop that painful disease and then suffer with it while they’re experimented on—sometimes for years.

Dog suffering from MD at Texas A&M University — Jelly, a dog imprisoned at TAMU, was bred to have muscular dystrophy. Her weakened jaw muscles and enlarged tongue made eating difficult for her. She had to subsist on thin gruel because she was at risk of choking, but she struggled to swallow even that.

In December, PETA released a disturbing video from this laboratory, which showed emaciated dogs living in barren cages and struggling to walk, swallow, and eat. Lead experimenter Joe Kornegay confirmed that the video footage was from TAMU.

People who watched the video were outraged and flooded the university with e-mails and phone calls. Just last week, a spokesperson from the office of the university president told several callers, including one from PETA, that the institution had shut down this laboratory. At least four people were told that these experiments—which in 35 years have failed to produce a cure or any treatment that reverses MD symptoms in humans—have ended.

Now, the university refuses to put this claim in writing and is even giving the Houston Press the runaround. It continues to dodge reporters, PETA, its concerned alumni, and others who care about dogs. It has shared only a vague statement that misleads the public about the breeding and experiments.

Does TAMU really believe that it can get away with stonewalling while playing fast and loose with the truth?

Take note, TAMU, and listen closely: We will never give up on the dogs you continue to torment in useless experiments.

With the help of PETA supporters, we’re keeping up the pressure on the university to end the experiments and shut down the laboratory.

This institution claims that its core values include integrity and leadership. It’s time for it to show some of each.

Please call TAMU President Michael K. Young today at 979-845-2217 and then follow up with an e-mail to [email protected] urging him to tell the truth, close the MD dog laboratory, stop breeding these dogs, and release all dogs for adoption into good homes.