Violations of Federal Animal Welfare Law in the Laboratories of UMass Chan

Federal inspectors from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have documented severe and chronic violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) in the laboratories of the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (UMass Chan). Experimenters and staff have frequently failed to meet federal minimum standards of animal care through disregard for the rules, incompetence, or both. Click the links for the complete reports.

• August 4, 2025 (two violations): The facility submitted inaccurate census figures to the USDA. Staff left two ferrets without water access after failing to connect the water line to their cages.

• July 3, 2025 (citation and official warning): The USDA issued an official warning to UMass Chan for three AWA violations. In one incident, a pig died after experimenters induced a heart attack and continued to subject the animal to procedures despite clear signs of heart failure, including difficulty standing, refusal to eat, and cyanosis of the legs and ears. The attending veterinarian was not notified of the pig’s condition, and staff performed an unapproved procedure on him. In addition, UMass Chan’s Animal Care and Use Committee approved three protocols without ensuring that required searches for alternatives to painful procedures had been conducted.

• January 28, 2025 (one violation): Staff failed to justify why animals, either alive or dead, were needed for endoscopic training. The lack of a coherent explanation raises serious concerns about whether animals were being used or killed unnecessarily, with no proper justification or oversight.

• August 13, 2024 (two violations, one repeat): Experimenters again failed to justify why a painful procedure on animals was necessary or to demonstrate that they had sought alternatives for three sets of experiments, as required. Staff also failed to notice that two hamsters were left behind when the others were moved. They went without water for about 16 hours inside cages too small for normal movement.

• May 22, 2024 (one violation): Animals endured an invasive and painful cardiac puncture blood collection method, while experimenters failed to provide written proof that they explored less painful alternatives, as required.

• February 27, 2024 (three violations, two critical): Staff made unauthorized changes to experiments involving pigs, resulting in multiple failures that could have caused additional harm to the animals, beyond the harm inflicted by the experiments:

1. A pig had an IV inserted and was gassed with anesthesia for an unapproved procedure.
2. Two pigs were at times unchecked or monitored after surgery, as required.
3. Two other pigs were given the wrong antibiotic.

For days, staff ignored distress signs in an ailing pig who could not even stand. Instead of ending the pig’s suffering, they used the pig in two more procedures—one of which was not approved—without informing the head veterinarian. Later, they gave the animal painkillers and left the pig unattended. The animal died less than two hours later.

• September 20, 2021 (one critical violation): Staff euthanized hamsters following an “unexpected outcome” during an experiment and disposed of their bodies, but left the cages for others to clean. A cage was later discovered containing two dead hamsters and one still alive. The surviving hamster was then killed.

What You Can Do

Please TAKE ACTION today and urge UMass Chan to get out of the cruel and pointless animal tormenting business altogether and switch to human-relevant, non-animal research methods.