Decision Will Help Shed Light on School's Cruel Experiments on Animals For Immediate Release:
For Immediate Release:
April 7, 2011
Contact:
Robbyn Brooks 202-483-7382
Galveston, Texas — Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has ruled that the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) must surrender numerous documents that PETA requested in January 2011 related to experiments on animals at the school, including veterinary records of animals used in painful and deadly burn, pain, and irritable bowel syndrome experiments and training exercises. Since January, UTMB has tried to claim various legal exemptions for withholding these documents. After hearing arguments from PETA and UTMB, the attorney general ruled that these exemptions are inapplicable and that the university must make this information available to PETA.
PETA's open records request came after a whistleblower reported that dogs, monkeys, sheep, mice, and other animals were neglected and denied veterinary care before and after they were cut open and mutilated in cruel and deadly experiments, including studies in which sheep, pigs, and mice were burned over 40 percent of their bodies.
"The attorney general's laudable decision ensures that the public has access to information about how its tax dollars are being used to torment and kill animals in cruel experiments at UTMB," says PETA Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. "UTMB has squandered tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to abuse animals in its laboratories, and the university seems to have no problem throwing away even more money in legal fees trying to evade public records laws in order to hide what goes on."
PETA has also filed a nine-page complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture regarding these alleged abuses.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.