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

Federal inspectors have documented severe and chronic violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act and the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals in the laboratories of the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. Experimenters and staff frequently fail to meet federal minimum standards of animal care through disregard for the rules, incompetence, or both. Click the links for the complete reports.

• January 13, 2026 (2 violations, one repeat): Inspectors cited the school’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee—helmed by Matt Gounis— 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 given too much anesthesia.

• September 30, 2025 (one violation): Staff implanted oral catheters on 13 mice and glued adapters to the sides of their heads using dental acrylic. The adhesive moved into the eyes of some animals, causing ulcers and impaired blinking. Three mice were immediately killed, while the remaining 10 were killed the next day.

• August 22, 2025 (one violation): A calf was born through embryo implantation at a location that was not approved by the animal experimentation oversight committee.

• August 4, 2025 (two violations): The facility submitted inaccurate census figures to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 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 U.S. Department of Agriculture issued an official warning to UMass Chan for three Animal Welfare Act 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.

• January 13, 2025 (four violations): Staff failed to feed five mice, killing three. Staff also failed to provide water to 56 mice, killing 34. A ferret was subjected to a CT scan that lasted longer than the approved timeframe. Finally, 51 zebrafish died of bubble gas disease after a tank malfunction allowed air to leak inside multiple tank systems.  

• September 12, 2024 (one violation): UMass Chan collaborators conducted animal experiments at a laboratory in Rome that had not been approved by the National Institutes of Health to conduct animal experiments funded by U.S. federal grants.

• September 4, 2024 (one violation): Six mice were placed in a cage to be killed by carbon dioxide gassing, exceeding the approved limit of five adult mice per cage. The carbon dioxide was released into the cage at a rate that was faster than allowed.

• August 26, 2024 (two violations): Staff put 20 mice in cages without water. Eleven days later, staff found that 10 mice died and the remaining 10 required veterinary care. Staff also housed 35 hamsters in isolated cages, some without water, for longer than allowed.

• August 14, 2024 (one violation): Staff left three mice in cages without food for two days before getting them veterinary attention.

• 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, confined to cages too small for normal movement.

• June 17, 2024 (one violation): Seven neonatal mice were found alive in a carcass freezer alongside 24 adult mice who had not received a required secondary method of euthanasia.

• 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.

• May 8, 2024 (three violations): Ten mice were tube-fed ethanol, then injected with an unapproved antibody two weeks later. The next day, the mice received a second ethanol tube-feeding, and nine died three hours later. Staff also injected six mice with cocaine at a dose higher than what was approved. Two died immediately after the injection, and the remaining four were killed. Finally, 188 mice had their tail tissues collected without the required pain relief.

• May 6, 2024 (two violations): After killing a cage of mice, staff threw away a live mouse along with the nesting materials from the cage. Staff found the mouse alive in the trash the next day and killed them. A cage containing five mice, who were presumed dead, was also found unlabeled on a cart in an area designated for dirty, empty cages. A veterinarian examined the mice, found no evidence that euthanasia had been performed, and killed them.

• April 29, 2024 (two violations): Twelve litters of young mice died, and adult mice required veterinary care after a water line failed to provide water to them following repairs. Staff also killed a baby mouse by cervical dislocation, an unapproved method.

• 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 pigs were unnecessarily given aspirin before a procedure.
4. 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, staff gave painkillers and left the pig unattended. The animal died less than two hours later. Staff forced the same pig to endure two more procedures involving injectable and gas anesthesia without informing the head veterinarian. One procedure was unapproved.

• December 28, 2023 (three violations): Nine out of ten mice were found dead four days after they were put in a chamber set to 75 percent oxygen. Three more mice put in the same chamber in another experiment also died. An investigation later found that the chamber’s oxygen sensor was miscalibrated, resulting in oxygen levels that were too high. In another instance, staff failed to obtain the weekly body weights for 15 mice over a two‑week period, which is required to assess humane endpoints. Finally, staff moved a rack from a housing room to a hallway for routine cleaning and left it there for three days with three mice still on it.

• August 22, 2023 (one violation): On multiple days, staff exceeded approved cage density limits while gassing mice with carbon dioxide to kill them. On two occasions, a total of 22 mice were found in a carcass freezer without having undergone the required secondary euthanasia method, cervical dislocation, to ensure the mice were dead.

• 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.