A shocking expose in the New York Times recently revealed gross neglect at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, which uses taxpayer dollars on "surgery and breeding techniques to re-engineer" farm animals.

The Research Center, which currently houses 30,000 animals, has virtually no oversight. Researchers perform experiments with little demonstrable value but high cost to animal welfare, and allow scientists without veterinary training to perform surgery on animals.

Of the 580,000 animals that the Center has housed since 1985, over 895 animals have died of abscesses or infections, and 6,500 animals have starved to death.

To make matters worse, many of the experiments are completely futile. Researchers have been trying unsuccessfully for over three decades to breed cows that have twins rather than one calf, and to develop "easy care" sheep that do not require shelter or shepherds.

At a time when consumers are increasingly choosing to eat less meat, and leading institutions are warning of the environmental and public health hazards of industrial animal agriculture, this research is dangerously outdated and out of touch.

Tell Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Harvey S. Perlman to immediately halt all farm animal research at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center.

To learn more about this shocking misuse of taxpayer funds, read the full New York Times expose.