Campaign Updates: U.S. Navy Kills Animals in Cruel Decompression Tests
The U.S. Navy squeezes the life out of animals in deadly decompression and oxygen toxicity experiments. Not only are these tests pointless, they’re also inconsistent with international standards adopted by our allies that no longer use animals for such tests. PETA is demanding that the U.S. Navy end these horrific experiments, and you can help.
PETA Presses Four Universities to Give Up Navy-Sponsored Experiments on Animals
November 4, 2025
PETA is calling on Duke University and the University of South Florida to immediately end their U.S. Navy-funded decompression and oxygen-toxicity experiments on animals. We are also urging the University of California-San Diego and the University of Maryland-Baltimore to never resume their similar pointless experiments on animals now that their grants with the Navy have concluded. In separate letters to each university, PETA urges the schools to replace animal testing with superior, human-relevant research methods in line with recent actions taken by various federal agencies.
PETA Praises End of Navy Dog and Cat Tests, Presses Top Military Brass to Go Further
May 30, 2025
In letters sent today to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of the Navy John Phelan, PETA thanks the Trump administration for its ban on Navy-funded dog and cat experiments announced this week, and continues to urge a broader ban on all animal testing across all military branches.
In its letters to the Pentagon, PETA specifically calls for officials to conduct a comprehensive audit agency-wide aimed at rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in cruel and outdated animal experimentation. PETA urges immediate action to:
- Ban the use of animals in Navy decompression sickness and oxygen toxicity tests;
- Prohibit the use of dogs, cats, nonhuman primates, marine animals, and other animals currently permitted in Army weapon-wounding tests; and,
- Disallow currently permitted Department of Defense funding of tests on animals at foreign institutions.
PETA Releases Statement Urging Secretary of the Navy to Stop Funding Violence
June 11, 2024
PETA released a statement regarding the refusal by Carlos Del Toro, secretary of the U.S. Navy, to end the service’s use of animals in painful decompression sickness and oxygen toxicity experiments, despite our urging.
U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro is setting the military branch adrift with an unfathomable decision to continue bankrolling experiments that put animals through excruciating pain before their gruesome deaths and fail to advance the health of sailors.
In a letter from May 23, he brushed off scientific and ethical concerns from PETA and more than 100 U.S. Navy veterans in an April 9 complaint about the military branch’s decompression sickness and oxygen toxicity experiments. It’s shameful that the Navy refuses to commit to sound science by ending deadly experiments that involve inducing seizures in animals without pain relief and implanting recording devices in their abdomens with wires placed on their backs and necks and electrodes fixed to their skulls. Del Toro should deep-six these useless tests and stop wasting millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund violence against animals.
PETA and 100 Veterans Take Aim at the Navy’s Cruel Animal Experiments
April 9, 2024
In letters sent today, PETA and more than 100 U.S. Navy veterans teamed up to urge the military branch to ban cruel and pointless decompression sickness and oxygen toxicity experiments on animals. Read more about these tests here.
PETA Protests Navy’s Decompression Tests on Animals at National Conference
February 6, 2024
At the National Small Business Conference in Atlanta, a group of animal advocates gathered to inform attendees of the Navy’s deadly decompression tests on animals during Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro’s keynote speech. They distributed leaflets to attendees, exposing the cruel reality of the Navy’s decompression and oxygen toxicity tests on defenseless animals.
PETA Activists Follow Secretary of the Navy Once Again
December 12, 2023
A group of animal rights advocates arrived at the AOC International Symposium & Convention in Maryland, where U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro was the keynote speaker. They handed out leaflets to attendees, informing them about the U.S. Navy’s cruel and deadly decompression and oxygen toxicity experiments on animals. They also left leaflets near the exhibit hall, ensuring that everyone in attendance could learn the truth about these horrific tests.
U.S. Navy Veteran Urges Ban on Using Animals in Deadly Decompression Tests
September 20, 2023
News outlets published a compelling op-ed—written by U.S. Navy veteran Nathan Libby, who serves as a lead technical support specialist for the PETA Foundation—that sheds light on the distressing realities of cruel U.S. Navy–funded decompression experiments on animals. The piece urges the military branch to take immediate action by banning the use of animals in such tests.
PETA Launches Bold Ad Campaign Against U.S. Navy’s Deadly Decompression Tests
May 15, 2023
After the U.S. Navy pulled its funding from cruel decompression tests on sheep at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, PETA launched a compelling digital ad campaign to prompt the military branch to end its funding of fatal decompression tests on all other animals, including mice and rats, at universities across the country.
Victory! Cruel Navy-Funded Decompression Tests on Sheep CANCELED
February 1, 2023
Victory for sheep! Documents recently obtained by PETA show that the gruesome decompression experiments on sheep that the U.S. Navy was funding—which were awarded more than $389,000 in taxpayer money—at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have been abruptly stopped up to two years ahead of schedule, following our campaign. The sheep formerly slated for these tests will be spared the agony of cardiovascular collapse, spinal cord injury, and paralysis. PETA is continuing to lead the push for the Navy and the U.S. Department of Defense to get in line with international standards by not supporting deadly and pointless decompression and oxygen toxicity experiments on any animals at any institutions.
PETA Video Blasts U.S. Navy for Horrific Decompression Tests
December 27, 2022
PETA’s latest push for the U.S. Navy to end its decompression and oxygen toxicity experiments on sheep and other animals is a heartrending video exposing how the terrified animals suffer during these gruesome tests. The video compilation, being blasted across social media, urges supporters to ask the military department’s top brass to stop these deadly experiments and switch to animal-free, human-relevant testing methods.
New PETA Ad Blitz Targets U.S. Navy’s Cruel Decompression Tests
November 17, 2022
PETA has launched an eye-catching ad blitz on The Hill’s website, featuring a sheep urging the U.S. Navy to stop squeezing her and other animals to death in cruel decompression tests.
‘Crying Sheep’ Crashes Navy League Dinner Over Cruel Decompression Tests
November 10, 2022
A “sheep” and a flock of PETA supporters crashed the Navy League of the United States’ 120th Anniversary Dinner—during which U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro received a Distinguished Service Award—demanding that the U.S. Navy end its undistinguished decompression and oxygen toxicity experiments on sheep and other animals and instead use animal-free, human-relevant methods.
‘Sheep’ Follows Navy Secretary to Symposium, Demanding an End to Cruel Deep-Dive Tests
November 2, 2022
While U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro was delivering his speech at the 2022 Naval Submarine League Annual Symposium & Industry Update, a large “sheep” and a flock of PETA supporters were outside, demanding that the U.S. Navy end its agonizing decompression and oxygen toxicity experiments on sheep and other animals and instead use animal-free, human-relevant methods.
Larger-Than-Life ‘Sheep’ Turns Heads at Naval Conference
October 25, 2022
Naval service members—along with U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, who gave the keynote address—were met with an unexpected sight on AFCEA NOVA Naval IT Day: a giant “sheep.” Sheep tortured by the U.S. Navy in cruel decompression illness and oxygen toxicity experiments aren’t able to demand their freedom, but PETA’s “sheep” mascot stopped by to urge the Navy’s top brass to permanently end these horrific tests on animals and replace them with human-relevant, non-animal research methods.
Giant ‘Sheep’ Demands That Secretary of the Navy End Cruel Decompression Tests
October 20, 2022
PETA supporters led by a giant “sheep” descended on the 2022 Defense Conference—during which U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro gave the keynote address—to confront the U.S. Navy over its agonizing decompression and oxygen toxicity experiments on sheep and other animals, whose spinal cords are injured in simulated deep dives. PETA is urging the U.S. Navy to end these horrific tests permanently and replace them with human-relevant, non-animal research methods.
After leaving a live baby monkey in a cooler, Washington National Primate Research Center leaders think they can solve their problems with a name change.
In a University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School laboratory, dogs endure painful procedures to create artificial aneurysms, are repeatedly sliced open, and ultimately killed.
After intense pressure from state legislators, PETA, and thousands of Oregonians, the taxpayer-funded Oregon National Primate Research Center explores transition to a sanctuary! See how this great progress came about.
