Federal records show that researchers at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School have repeatedly violated animal welfare rules. In April 2024, hamsters were kept in solitary confinement in violation of approved protocols. A month later, two hamsters were left without water for 16 hours after being overlooked during a routine cage transfer. The U.S. Department of Agriculture cited UMass Chan for the incident. The university's own animal care committee placed the laboratory under mandatory supervision for six months, a measure reserved for cases of serious negligence.

These violations occurred in a lab that has received more than $20 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding over the past two decades. Federal dollars are meant to advance science and save lives. When institutions receiving that funding cannot meet basic animal welfare standards, taxpayers and the animals bearing the cost of that research deserve accountability.

Animal welfare advocates have also raised questions about whether this line of research, which uses animal species that respond to parasites and drugs differently than humans, can produce results that translate into usable human treatments. Those questions deserve serious review from NIH before additional grants are approved.

UMass Chan and the NIH must do better. The university must enforce its animal care protocols, not just write them. NIH must audit labs with documented violations before renewing federal funding. And both institutions should invest in human-relevant, non-animal research methods that are more likely to produce results that help people.

Sign this petition to demand UMass Chan and the NIH take animal welfare violations seriously, enforce existing law, and move toward research that works.