GUILTY! Ex-Envigo Vet Sentenced On Cruelty to Animals Charges: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
May 4, 2026

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch regarding the sentencing of Dr. Dawn Marie Gau, former attending veterinarian at Envigo’s Cumberland beagle facility, who pleaded guilty this morning to seven counts of cruelty to animals in Cumberland County, Va., Circuit Court. Gau was sentenced to 12 months in jail—which was suspended—and put on supervised probation for seven years. PETA’s undercover investigation helped lead to the site’s closure, the first-ever federal convictions of a supplier of animals for experimentation, more than $35 million in penalties, and the liberation of nearly 4,000 surviving dogs:

Dawn Marie Gau was finally held accountable for the cruelty she inflicted during her lucrative tenure at Envigo’s beagle prison. While no penalty can make up for the suffering she caused, including failing to humanely euthanize a conscious dog and failing to prevent a worker from killing a conscious puppy with an injection into the heart, today’s sentencing is a start. PETA urges constituents to press their federal legislators to introduce legislation compelling the National Institutes of Health to implement PETA’s Research Modernization NOW, a workable roadmap to transition away from cruel and pointless experiments on beagles and other animals.

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.