Feds Cite the University of Virginia After Experimenters Withhold Pain Relief from Rabbits: PETA Statement
For Immediate Release:
September 4, 2025
Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382
Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding a just-posted citation issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture against the University of Virginia after experimenters knowingly violated protocol by depriving rabbits of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs as specified in the approved protocol, potentially causing the animals unnecessary pain and suffering. The university’s attending veterinarian tried to justify the decision, but federal authorities still cited the school.
This is the University of Virginia’s (UVA) 17th federal violation in the past 22 months. An apparently systemic failure at UVA put rabbits at risk of suffering uninterrupted pain, evidently because experimenters decided they knew better than those who established the pain relief protocol, or the animal care committee responsible for reviewing and approving the protocol was just phoning it in, or both. Adding insult, the attending veterinarian tried justifying this grave federal violation and betrayal of the public trust with paper-thin excuses. PETA calls on UVA to get its house in order and shift resources toward state-of-the-art, non-animal research methods that protect animals and produce reliable science.
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 Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
