PETA Sues Virginia Tech Over Withheld Records on Gruesome Brain Blast Experiments on Minipigs

For Immediate Release:
September 8, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

PETA has filed a Virginia Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in Norfolk Circuit Court against Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), alleging the university is unlawfully withholding public records related to taxpayer-funded, traumatic brain injury experiments that injured and killed multiple Gӧttingen minipigs. 

PETA requested videos and photos of the pigs last year after obtaining records from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) revealing that four pigs died in gruesome experiments in which staff used a high-pressure blast to injure the animals’ brains. Virginia Tech has refused to provide the records, claiming they’re exempt under the state’s open records law, an argument PETA’s lawsuit rejects.

According to public documents, the first pig “didn’t look alive” after the blast. Despite this evidently unexpected death, experimenters failed to notify a veterinarian and instead attempted to troubleshoot the blast procedure, subjecting more pigs to trauma and gruesome injuries. Blood was seen in intubation tubes, and some pigs’ lungs were “pretty beat up,” according to the experimenter. Only two pigs survived the experiment, both showing abnormal neurological signs, including muscle control problems, weakness in all four limbs, and depression. One pig was visibly trembling.

The incident resulted in a federal animal welfare violation, which was one of seven for which the USDA fined Virginia Tech a civil penalty of $18,950, a rare action for the agency. In its settlement agreement with the university, the USDA said the experimenters’ actions “led to potentially preventable deaths and pain for the surviving pigs.”

“Virginia Tech apparently has no qualms about using tax dollars to repeatedly blast the brains of minipigs, but it’s fighting tooth and nail to evade basic transparency,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo.

“PETA’s lawsuit seeks Virginia Tech’s disclosure of public records under the Commonwealth’s open records laws, a requirement Virginians rightfully expect of this publicly funded institution.”

Virginia Tech has a long history of violating the federal Animal Welfare Act. It amassed 19 USDA violations in a five-year span, including critical ones involving a 6-day-old piglet who starved to death, a calf who was denied veterinary aid, and Venezuelan fruit bats who died after experimenters failed to notify a veterinarian of their poor condition upon arrival at the facility.

In recent years, the school has vigorously opposed legislation introduced during Virginia’s General Assembly sessions seeking to increase transparency and accountability at publicly funded research facilities within the Commonwealth.

PETA is represented by Richard Ottinger and Katherine Lennon Ellis of Woods Rogers.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.