End Animal Cruelty at the University of Minnesota's Laboratories
End Animal Cruelty at the University of Minnesota's Laboratories
The Issue
The University of Minnesota has spent years breaking federal animal welfare laws — and animals are paying the price with pain, suffering, and death.
Federal inspection reports obtained by PETA reveal dozens of violations of the Animal Welfare Act and the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals at the university's labs. The pattern is alarming: animals repeatedly denied pain relief before and after surgery, left without water for days, subjected to unapproved experiments, burned by heating equipment, and killed by expired drugs. These are not isolated mistakes. They are a systemic failure playing out over years, across species — mice, rats, pigs, sheep, monkeys, hamsters, and cats.
The details are harrowing. Three monkeys went three days without water while staff falsely signed off on water checks. Ten mice were allowed to regain consciousness after brain surgery without receiving any pain relief. A cat received a paralytic drug at more than four times the intended dose and died. Rats were subjected to unapproved procedures, then killed when the unauthorized experiment was discovered. Pigs undergoing kidney transplants died from preventable complications tied to inadequate monitoring. Over 300 mice went without required post-operative painkillers over the course of just a few months.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture took the rare step of issuing an official warning against the university — a sanction reserved for the most serious violations. Yet the problems have continued.
The University of Minnesota is a public institution. It receives federal funding and is bound by federal law. It must be held to account.
We are calling on University of Minnesota President Rebecca Cunningham and the university's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee to immediately suspend research programs with repeat violations, implement independent third-party oversight of all animal laboratories, and take concrete steps to ensure these abuses never happen again.
Animals in laboratories cannot speak for themselves. We can — and we must.
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The Issue
The University of Minnesota has spent years breaking federal animal welfare laws — and animals are paying the price with pain, suffering, and death.
Federal inspection reports obtained by PETA reveal dozens of violations of the Animal Welfare Act and the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals at the university's labs. The pattern is alarming: animals repeatedly denied pain relief before and after surgery, left without water for days, subjected to unapproved experiments, burned by heating equipment, and killed by expired drugs. These are not isolated mistakes. They are a systemic failure playing out over years, across species — mice, rats, pigs, sheep, monkeys, hamsters, and cats.
The details are harrowing. Three monkeys went three days without water while staff falsely signed off on water checks. Ten mice were allowed to regain consciousness after brain surgery without receiving any pain relief. A cat received a paralytic drug at more than four times the intended dose and died. Rats were subjected to unapproved procedures, then killed when the unauthorized experiment was discovered. Pigs undergoing kidney transplants died from preventable complications tied to inadequate monitoring. Over 300 mice went without required post-operative painkillers over the course of just a few months.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture took the rare step of issuing an official warning against the university — a sanction reserved for the most serious violations. Yet the problems have continued.
The University of Minnesota is a public institution. It receives federal funding and is bound by federal law. It must be held to account.
We are calling on University of Minnesota President Rebecca Cunningham and the university's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee to immediately suspend research programs with repeat violations, implement independent third-party oversight of all animal laboratories, and take concrete steps to ensure these abuses never happen again.
Animals in laboratories cannot speak for themselves. We can — and we must.
58
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on April 28, 2026