PETA Complaint Prompts Federal Citations at UMass Chan

For Immediate Release:
February 23, 2026

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Vice President of Laboratory Oversight & Special Cases Dr. Alka Chandna regarding citations issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture against the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (UMass Chan) for incidents in the laboratory of Matthew Gounis, who also helms the university’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. Inspectors cited the school for allowing Gounis to cut into the blood vessels of dogs in multiple invasive procedures without a plan to treat foreseeable and painful complications. Inspectors also found repeat violations for careless handling of animals, including a dog who ingested a catheter left behind after surgery, and rabbits who were overdosed anesthesia:

PETA was first to investigate whistleblower reports about the cruelty and horrors inside UMass Chan Medical School, which federal inspectors now confirm: animals pay a high price, often with their lives, for the systemic incompetence and culture of disregard there. These are not technical oversights, but preventable failures that leave dogs, rabbits, and other species suffering in laboratories that fail to meet even the most minimum legal standards. And they are part of a long, disturbing pattern at UMass Chan, which has shown itself unwilling or unable to comply with federal animal welfare laws. It is in everyone’s interests for UMass Chan to immediately transition to effective, non-animal research methods that actually advance medicine without inflicting extreme and prolonged suffering on its helpless subjects. 

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.