PETA Statement: $74,000 USDA Fine Against University of Wisconsin

For Immediate Release:
July 28, 2020

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA regarding the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s just-released report of 28 violations at the University of Wisconsin–Madison:

It’s obviously not enough for the University of Wisconsin (UW) to butcher and torment animals in experiments—it can’t even be trusted to provide these animals with basic care. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has just fined the school $74,000 for mishandling, incompetence, and carelessness in its laboratories, and PETA is calling on the feds to pull funding from this horror show. A just-released report documents 28 violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act, including 23 incidents in which monkeys and other animals sustained lacerations, bruising, and trauma to their faces and bodies, and some needed amputations of their fingers, toes, and portions of their tongues and feet. One monkey who was caged with a stressed animal sustained wounds so deep that part of his vertebrae was exposed. Another was found dead from traumatic injuries. The university even failed to provide monkeys with drinking water for four days, causing dehydration so severe that one animal had to be euthanized. A mouse starved to death and another had to be euthanized when the university failed to provide them with food for three consecutive days. This follows a 2014 fine of $35,286. UW has been cited by the USDA more than 62 times over the past 16 years, and it shouldn’t be allowed another chance to harm and kill animals.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.