New Ad Blitz Condemns Texas A&M’s Dog Laboratory

Animal Activist and Muscular Dystrophy Patient Johnathon Byrne Calls for End to School’s MD Experiments on Dogs

For Immediate Release:
September 13, 2018

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

In a new PETA billboard that just went up in Houston and in mall ads that will soon appear in College Station, Johnathon Byrne—an animal rights activist with muscular dystrophy (MD)—proclaims, “I don’t want anyone else to suffer from muscular dystrophy. Dogs included.” The ads target Texas A&M University (TAMU), urging the school to close its MD dog laboratory.

PETA’s billboard is located on Interstate 45/Gulf Freeway in Houston, just south of Beltway 8, and similar ads will go up later this month in Post Oak Mall in College Station (1500 Harvey Rd.).

The ads follow Byrne’s recent visit from his native England to Texas, where he called on TAMU to shut down the laboratory where dogs are deliberately bred to develop a crippling and painful form of MD.

“Dogs have suffered and died for decades for experiments that haven’t led to a cure or successful treatment for muscular dystrophy in humans,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “PETA is joining forces with Johnathon Byrne to call for the closure of Texas A&M’s cruel and wasteful dog laboratory.”

PETA has released video footage from TAMU’s laboratories showing dogs struggling to walk, swallow, and even breathe. Byrne, who resigned from his position as an advocacy ambassador to Muscular Dystrophy UK over the organization’s decision to fund animal studies, is one of numerous muscular dystrophy patients around the world who have spoken out against these experiments.

For more information, please visit PETA.org