New PETA Study Finds UW-Madison Is Nation’s Worst Animal Welfare Violator Out of All Top-Funded Universities

For Immediate Release:
March 3, 2025

Contact:
Brandi Pharris 202-483-7382

A newly published PETA study analyzing animal welfare violations at the 20 institutions of higher education nationwide that received the most funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) identified the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW-Madison) as the worst offender, topping the list with a whopping 35 violations in just a two-year period.

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

Among UW-Madison’s violations:

• Infant rhesus macaques did not receive appropriate pain medication following cerebrospinal fluid collection, affecting 35 of 37 monkeys.
• Eight mice drowned when the wrong style of water bottle was put in a cage, allowing animals to push against the dispensing mechanism and pour water into cages below.
• A macaque with a tail injury was supposed to receive an antibiotic for five days, but the final two days’ doses were given to her uninjured cage mate instead.
• Six rats died as a result of errors in mixing xylazine and ketamine for anesthesia administration.

“Animals are in danger every minute at UW-Madison and other negligent, careless universities,” says study author and PETA Vice President Dr. Alka Chandna. “UW-Madison should lose its NIH funding and schools nationwide must switch to modern, human-relevant research.”

PETA’s analysts documented 231 animal welfare violations across 20 educational institutions, which 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’s study calls out other top offenders, such as the University of Washington with 29 violations, the University of Pittsburgh with 28, the University of Michigan with 19, and the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill with 17.

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.