Secretly Shot Video Shows Animals Mutliated, Suffering in University of Pittsburgh Labs

PETA Footage Reveals That Mice Drowned, Monkey Was Denied Adequate Veterinary Care

For Immediate Release:
March 9, 2017

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

A five-month PETA eyewitness investigation has revealed serious oversight issues and widespread animal suffering at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt). PETA’s video footage is available here.

Among the multitude of problems that PETA documented at the facility, monkeys were apparently so distressed from being housed in barren cages that they paced and circled inside them. One, named Gandalf, was bitten so badly on the hand by a frustrated monkey caged nearby that his tendons were exposed, yet the veterinarian on call reportedly refused to examine his injury and prescribed only ibuprofen to relieve the pain. Three weeks after Gandalf was used in an experimental surgery, he was euthanized.

Employees at Pitt failed to provide animals with adequate veterinary care, safe housing, relief from pain and distress, and painless euthanasia. PETA’s eyewitness documented that mice drowned in flooded cages and died of dehydration when watering systems failed or were positioned incorrectly. In addition, rabbits were subjected to crippling surgeries and bred to have deformed skulls.

Pitt is exempt from state open records laws, even though it received more than $154 million in funding from Pennsylvania last year, and mice and rats are completely exempt from the Animal Welfare Act, the federal law covering the use of animals in laboratories.

“PETA is calling on the National Institutes of Health to kick the University of Pittsburgh off the gravy train,” says PETA’s Dr. Alka Chandna. “Monkeys, rabbits, mice, and rats at the university were tormented in cruel experiments and left to suffer, while experimenters—not veterinarians—gave the orders regarding their care.”

Broadcast-quality video footage and photos from PETA’s investigation are available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org or click here.