Coronavirus In Minnesota: U Of M's COVID-19 Plan Prompts PETA Complaint
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The University of Minnesota is urging researchers to euthanize animals as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the animal rights group PETA, the university asked experimenters to "euthanize [animals] as soon as [their] data is collected." The request, PETA argues, could likely lead to the deaths of hundreds of laboratory animals.
On Friday, PETA sent a letter to Joan Gabel, the school's president, demanding to know why the university conducts animal experiments which are considered noncritical.
Reports from the National Institutes of Health also revealed the university's laboratories were in violation of the U.S. Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. In the past, three monkeys endured unapproved CT scans, mice and rats were not given pain medication following a surgery, and 89 mice were given an expired anesthetic.
"UMN does a sloppy, substandard job of caring for animals in fully staffed laboratories, so nothing good can be expected amid a pandemic," said PETA Vice President Shalin Gala. "The COVID-19 outbreak should be a moral and scientific reckoning for the school, which conducts deadly experiments on animals. If the university can't prove that these experiments are needed - which we know it can't - it shouldn't be wasting taxpayer money on them."