Pigs Die Alone After Invasive Surgeries in UMass Chan Heart Attack Laboratory

Some pigs in the laboratory of experimenter John Kevin Donahue die before he ever gets a chance to kill and dissect them.

University records leaked to PETA reveal that animals used in Donahue’s cruel experiments at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (UMass Chan) suffered fatal complications, including two pigs who were found dead in their cages after invasive procedures and another whose declining health was ignored until he died.

These records add to PETA’s growing dossier on Donahue, who induces heart attacks in piglets, cuts open animals’ chests, implants devices into their bodies, and subjects them to repeated procedures before killing and dissecting them.

Heart Attack Horrors

Pigs are about two months old when they arrive in Donahue’s laboratory.

Experimenters induce heart attacks in some by inserting balloons into their arteries and inflating them to block blood flow for hours. Others are mutilated in open-heart surgeries as experimenters cut through their bones and apply viruses to their exposed organs.

In some tests, pigs endure weeks of electrical stimulation through wires threaded through their necks and hearts as a pacemaker delivers rapid pulses that trigger dangerous, abnormal heart rhythms. Every pig ends up dead and dissected.

Rabbits suffer too. Donahue cuts open their chests and applies viruses directly to their hearts. After, rabbits endure six weeks of monitoring, blood draws, and additional procedures while awake and restrained. Then they’re killed.

Neglected to Death

One pig in Donahue’s laboratory suffered such neglect that federal inspectors were forced to take note.

Records show that “Pig 726” rapidly declined after enduring one of Donahue’s signature heart attack procedures. One month after the surgery, the pig was lethargic, lying down, and unable or unwilling to eat, even declining to eat fruit offered by staff. 

The next day, his ears, snout, tail, and lower legs turned blue, indicating an inadequate oxygen supply to those areas of his body. Without notifying a veterinarian, staff put him under anesthesia and stuck tubes into his veins in unapproved procedures.

Afterward, they put the pig back in his cage. No one checked on him until the following morning, when he was found lying on his side, his ears, snout, tail, and legs still blue. He collapsed twice trying to stand. A veterinarian finally examined the pig and recorded multiple signs of severe health problems, but gave him a painkiller rather than euthanizing him to end his suffering.

Less than two hours later, “Pig 726” was dead. An examination found infections in his neck and heart.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture cited UMass Chan for a critical violation of the Animal Welfare Act for denying the pig adequate veterinary care and failing to report the animal’s numerous health problems to the veterinarian.

Death by Donahue

Two other piglets were found dead in their enclosures after being used in Donahue’s heart attack experiments, according to university records.

Records describe the first, “Pig 717,” as timid and “very skittish.”

Experimenters sedated him, jammed a breathing tube down his throat, and hooked him to a ventilator. They inflated a balloon inside one of his blood vessels, blocking blood flow for about 2 1/2 hours and damaging his heart. They then implanted a device designed to correct abnormal heart rhythms.

After the surgery, “Pig 717” was reportedly sluggish and bled from his rectum after a thermometer was removed. Experimenters put him back in his cage.

Later that evening, he was dead.

Records describe “Pig 796” as timid, too.

Experimenters sedated him, cut open his chest, implanted a pacemaker, subjected him to open-heart tests, and returned him to his cage. The next day, he was dead. Records reveal that a pacemaker wire had moved out of place, triggering an abnormal heart rhythm that sent him into cardiac arrest.

What You Can Do

Donahue joins UMass Chan colleagues who slice open dogs, infect animals with blood-sucking parasites, breed animals to suffer painful neurodegenerative diseases, cut out animals’ tongues, and subject mice to excruciating intestinal injuries before killing them.

We’ve filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture over Donahue’s negligent treatment of pigs in his lab. You can help by urging the university to get out of the cruel and pointless animal tormenting business and switch to human-relevant, non-animal research methods: