Hundreds of Animal Welfare Violations at Top Taxpayer-Funded Universities, New PETA Study Finds

For Immediate Release:
March 3, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

In just two years, the 20 institutions of higher education nationwide that received the most funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) racked up a staggering 231 documented violations of animal welfare standards, a newly published PETA study reveals.

Animals experienced pain, injury, and death due to neglect, incompetence, and carelessness by experimenters and staff, according to the study, published in the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law’s Journal of Animal and Environmental Law. PETA’s researchers analyzed violations from NIH case reports dated October 1, 2021, through September 30, 2023.

The institutions with the most offenses include the University of Wisconsin–Madison, which tops the list with 35 violations, followed by the University of Washington with 29, the University of Pittsburgh with 28, the University of Michigan with 19, and the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill with 17.

Among the violations documented by NIH at these schools:

• Infant rhesus macaques did not receive appropriate pain medication following cerebrospinal fluid collection, affecting 35 monkeys (University of Wisconsin–Madison).
• An experimenter performed 30 cranial surgeries on mice without the certification to perform independent surgery and failed to sterilize instruments, properly prepare incision sites, and provide local anesthetic and postoperative pain relief (University of Washington).
• Staff found two live baby mice in a carcass bag after a failed attempt to kill them by carbon dioxide gassing. No secondary method of euthanasia had been performed to confirm death. In a separate incident, a live rat was found in a cooler intended for dead animals (University of Pittsburgh).
• On eight separate occasions, animals died or were euthanized due to dehydration or starvation. In one incident, seven mice were found dead and one was euthanized after being left without food (University of Pittsburgh).
• A monkey endured brain trauma after a staff member extended a tube too far into the animal’s brain during surgery to place a recording device (University of Washington).
• A boar was discovered in distress after a lower tusk became caught in a chain on a cage. The animal was treated for hyperthermia but went into acute renal failure and was euthanized (University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill).
• A staff member tried to euthanize four rabbits but did not perform a secondary method of euthanasia to confirm their death. One rabbit was found alive and was later euthanized by a veterinarian (University of Michigan).

“Animals are in constant danger at these negligent, careless universities that should have already switched to more modern methods,” says study author and PETA Vice President Dr. Alka Chandna. “By failing to comply with minimal animal welfare standards, these institutions have squandered taxpayer dollars, and they should lose their NIH funding.”

The 20 educational institutions in PETA’s analysis collectively received more than $11.8 billion from NIH in 2023 alone. The violations were self-reported, indicating the actual number may be even higher.

PETA scientists’ Research Modernization Now provides evidence of the failure of studies on animals and lays out a strategy for transitioning to cutting-edge, non-animal methodologies.

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.