Rabbits Left to Die Overnight, Others Fatally Injured at Inotiv-Owned Indiana Facility: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
October 28, 2026

Contact:
Sydney Rader 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Vice President Dr. Alka Chandna regarding just-posted citations from the U.S. Department of Agriculture against an Inotiv-owned facility in Indiana for critical violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act that resulted in nine dead rabbits. Laboratory staff left five near-death rabbits in a cart overnight instead of euthanizing them, and all were found dead the next morning. Two more rabbits sustained injuries so severe they had to be euthanized after staff used an oversized restraint device that allowed them to kick out of it. Less than a month later, two others were injured and euthanized under similar circumstances after staff failed to use the additional manual restraint and padding they had been instructed to use:

Inotiv’s disturbing pattern of negligence and incompetence harms and kills the animals it imprisons, sometimes even before they are tormented in pointless experiments. Among its many violations, an escaped monkey was mangled in an industrial fan, and dozens of rabbits have drowned, died of thirst, or suffered injuries causing death or requiring euthanasia. Now, nine more rabbits died because Inotiv can’t even meet the bare minimum standards of animal care. Inotiv should get out of the animal killing business and pivot toward human-relevant research methods. 

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.