PETA Goes to Court to Unmask Secretive Animal Experiment Committees

The public has a right to know the full names of those who sit on committees in publicly funded schools. Full stop.

The University of Massachusetts–Amherst (UMass–Amherst) and the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (UMass Chan) would like you to believe otherwise.

So PETA’s suing them.

PETA filed public records lawsuits in Suffolk County Superior Court alleging both schools refused to release basic information about the people who comprise their Institutional Animal Care and Use committees—federally mandated animal care panels that review and approve experiments on animals.

Because the schools are publicly funded, PETA argues that the public has a right to know who sits on these committees, what decisions they make, and whether they’re legally constituted. . PETA is also seeking meeting records that could show how the committees discuss and approve experiments on animals.

How We Got Here

In January, PETA requested the names of UMass Chan’s animal care committee members, along with its meeting notices, agendas, and minutes. UMass Chan said it would release the names of those sitting on its animal care committee, then refused, claiming the information is shielded by privacy and security exemptions under the Massachusetts Public Records Law.

PETA requested meeting minutes of UMass–Amherst’s animal care committee in October 2025. The school took five months to produce the records. Finally, in March 2026, UMass–Amherst turned over heavily redacted records, removing the initials of committee members everywhere except the attendance record. They also redacted information about the committee’s activities, claiming exemptions for withholding “deliberative” material and “trade secrets.”

PETA argues those exemptions don’t apply, and that Massachusetts law presumes these records are public unless the school can prove otherwise.

PETA’s Winning Record

This is not PETA’s first fight with UMass over animal care committee secrecy.

In 2025, UMass–Amherst settled a years-long lawsuit with PETA, agreeing to release all public records PETA sought, hand over the names of all 2025 animal care committee members, and pay $50,000 toward PETA’s legal fees and costs.

PETA then submitted another public records request to UMass–Amherst for its animal care committee meeting minutes, which led to the current lawsuit.

PETA also won a similar transparency battle against the University of Washington, forcing the school to release the names of its committee members. In that matter, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that releasing animal care committee member names does not violate their right to privacy, because that information is considered “basic ‘biographical data’.”

What You Can Do

At UMass Chan, experimenters torment ferrets, hamsters, mice, rats, pigs, and other animals. They slice open dogs to induce strokes, infect animals with blood-sucking parasites, breed animals to suffer painful neurodegenerative diseases, inject chemicals into their brains, and more.

Please TAKE ACTION today and urge UMass Chan to get out of the cruel and pointless animal tormenting business altogether and switch to human-relevant, non-animal research methods.