University of Delaware Cited by Feds in Experimental Use of Prairie Voles: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
April 6, 2022

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Vice President Dr. Alka Chandna concerning U.S. Department of Agriculture documents showing that the University of Delaware was cited for violating the federal Animal Welfare Act:

The University of Delaware should lose is license to imprison and harm animals. Just-released government documents obtained by PETA reveal that an experimenter went rogue and subjected more prairie voles than had been approved to an invasive surgery in which a recording device was implanted into their bodies. It appears that these small, complex animals are being used in curiosity-driven experiments to study the relationship between social behavior and hormones—in voles, not humans. Voles are known to be intelligent, sensitive, and empathetic, but the same cannot be said about University of Delaware experimenters.

Last year, the University of Delaware received $45,756,039 from the National Institutes of Health—and about half of that money went to pointless experiments on animals. The university must redirect its resources toward modern, non-animal research methods that will actually help humans, and we urge officials there to adopt PETA’s Research Modernization Deal.

For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.