UW-Madison Has Ended Illegal Decompression Experiments, and Navy Has Reportedly Pulled Funding for All Future Decompression Experiments on Animals
For Immediate Release:
May 23, 2011
Contact:
Robbyn Brooks 202-483-7382
Madison, Wis. — No more sheep will die in excruciating decompression experiments at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW) even though the special prosecutor appointed to investigate has declined to bring charges. In a May 19 report, special prosecutor David A. Geier stated that he would not file charges for the killings because he believed the law was “ambiguous” but stated that if such studies occurred in the future, the university could be held criminally liable. The district attorney had deemed the experiments performed at the university were illegal.
As a result, the university has ended the experiments, which had been ongoing for decades. Officials from the Navy, which funded the studies, also reportedly told Geier that they would no longer fund any decompression studies on animals anywhere. Geier was appointed as special prosecutor after PETA and Madison-based Alliance for Animals filed a petition with the court alleging that UW staff had repeatedly violated a Wisconsin law that plainly outlaws killing animals by decompression.
"PETA and the Alliance for Animals are celebrating the real victory—that these experiments have ended as a result of our petition and that the Navy has pulled funding from any future decompression studies," says PETA Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. "No more sheep will suffer the agonizing pain and death of decompression at UW."
After Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard agreed that the university violated state law but then refused to prosecute, PETA and the Alliance for Animals filed a petition with the Dane County Circuit Court for the issuance of a criminal complaint of UW for killing sheep by decompression. Dane County Circuit Court Judge Amy Smith ruled in June 2010 that UW appeared to have repeatedly violated the law by killing sheep in the study and appointed Geier as special prosecutor to investigate the case.
In the highly painful experiments, the sheep were placed in high-pressure hyperbaric chambers. Afterward, they suffered the excruciating pain of decompression sickness ("the bends"), which occurs when bubbles of nitrogen gas form in the blood, muscles, and organs, including the brain. Over the last three years, at least three sheep died as a result of the experiment. A copy of Geier's report is available upon request.
For more information, please visit PETA's website.
