Dogs Starved, Botched Animal Killings at UMass Med School; Feds & State Investigating After PETA Plea

For Immediate Release:
December 16, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Worcester, Mass. — Dogs used in deadly experiments at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (UMass Chan) are deliberately starved just to keep them in smaller cages, and other animals suffer open and necrotic wounds and endure prolonged, agonizing deaths, according to a concerned insider who provided documents and disturbing photos to PETA.

In complaints filed with agencies, PETA strongly urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare at the National Institutes of Health, and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to investigate. All three agencies are now investigating.

According to the insider, UMass Chan failed to provide adequate veterinary care to animals and failed to provide safe and appropriate housing for animals. Also, the school’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee failed in its oversight responsibilities, resulting in avoidable pain and distress beyond the suffering inherent to the experiments themselves.

The emaciated dogs, as well as rabbits and pigs in the laboratory of UMass Chan experimenter Matthew Gounis endure painful and invasive surgeries as their blood vessels are rerouted to create artificial “aneurysms.” The dogs are intentionally underfed to keep their weight down and avoid a USDA regulation requiring larger kennels to cage them, according to the insider.

Staff in another UMass Chan laboratory reportedly failed to provide adequate care to a ferret who had swallowed a large portion of a cage’s hammock after enduring invasive respiratory experiments. The ferret became lethargic, refused to eat, and was eventually prescribed an anti-nausea medication, which prevented the animal from clearing the obstruction naturally by vomiting. Two days later, X-rays showed the obstruction and staff decided to kill the ferret, but used inappropriate equipment, causing the ferret to suffer for eight agonizing minutes before finally dying, the insider reported.

You can find these and other whistleblower photos from inside UMass Chan Medical School laboratories here.

In experimenter Shuying Liu’s laboratory, a rabbit suffered a serious injury to her foot. When a veterinarian’s attempt to close the wound failed, the tissue in her toe died and had to be amputated, records show. Staff then failed to monitor the collar placed around her neck during recovery, which created a large, open wound. Staff in another laboratory that induces heart attacks and atrial fibrillation in infant pigs and rabbits failed to take any of the routine precautions to prevent the animals’ tissue from turning black and dying because of impaired blood flow, according to the insider.

“Dogs starved to fit into kennels, rabbits left with exposed muscle and rotting flesh, and a ferret who lingered for days with a gut blockage before dying in a botched euthanasia—these aren’t isolated incidents, they’re symptoms of systemic problems in UMass Chan’s laboratories,” says PETA Vice President Dr. Alka Chandna. “The laboratories should be shut down and PETA urges an immediate investigation of UMass Chan before any more animals suffer and die.”

UMass Chan has a long history of animal welfare violations, including citations for critical violations of federal animal welfare laws and an official warning after experimenters continued to subject a pig to multiple cardiac procedures for days, even after he had been observed to be “lying down, lethargic,” and exhibiting signs of peripheral cyanosis (a purplish discoloration of the extremities due to poor circulation). He was later found dead in his cage.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kitsfor people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.