Victory for Public Disclosure! UW Animal Oversight Committee Accepts Defeat in Legal Fight to Hide Members’ Names
For Immediate Release:
April 29, 2025
Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382
In yet another major win for PETA in its work to open the University of Washington (UW) to public scrutiny, the university’s animal experimentation oversight committee has given up its years-long legal fight to keep its members’ names secret and has asked a federal court to dismiss its lawsuit.
The request comes a week after PETA and Northwest Animal Rights Network (NARN) filed a motion with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington to dismiss the committee members’ lawsuit, and just two weeks after the Seattle federal court denied the committee’s attempt to block the release of the members’ names while the case moved forward. That decision removes any legal barrier to PETA and NARN receiving records revealing committee members’ names.
The committee, which is legally required to serve the public interest, initially claimed that disclosing its members’ identities would violate their rights, citing unwanted communications from the public. The court rejected the argument, affirming it was not enough to allow public servants, including those making consequential decisions about the use and treatment of animals, to use anonymity to avoid accountability.
“If UW’s animal oversight committee is so terrified of public scrutiny, it should do a better job of protecting animals tormented, mutilated, and killed in the laboratories they oversee,” says PETA Foundation Director of Litigation Asher Smith. “PETA will continue to expose the shocking mistreatment of monkeys, mice, and other animals used in UW experiments until they are replaced with 21st-century non-animal methods that give proven results.”
Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUCs) are supposed to be the last line of defense for animals imprisoned in university laboratories. Yet, UW’s IACUC has failed miserably, leading to animals killed by irradiation, starvation, dehydration, strangulation, scalding, blood loss, and more.
The dismissal should mark the end of a years-long saga, which spanned multiple courts and saw PETA notch three separate Ninth Circuit Court victories before this month’s District Court win. The most recent Ninth Circuit decision rejected IACUC members’ argument that they had a right under the U.S. Constitution to keep their identities secret.
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.
