Texas Tech Ends Use of Shelter Cats in Medical Exercises

January 2009

After PETA’s Laboratory Investigations Division learned that Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center was purchasing cats from an animal shelter and using them in cruel and deadly medical training exercises, we launched an aggressive campaign to urge the school to replace the use of animals with modern, educationally superior medical simulation methods. In these exercises, tubes were forced down cats’ throats and needles were stabbed into the animals’ chests before they were killed. We filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, posted a billboard near campus, held protests, worked with medical experts and celebrities, and encouraged our members and supporters to contact both the university and the animal shelter. Following our year-long effort, Texas Tech announced that after more than 20 years, it was finally ending its practice of using cats for this training.