Staff Reports
During the COVID-19 crisis, around 25,000 animals were killed at college testing facilities funded by the National Institutes of Health. These animals were labeled as “extraneous” and “nonessential,” which raised concerns from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). PETA is now calling for a nationwide investigation into this issue.
PETA discovered through collected documents that 22 schools euthanized these animals at a cost of $9 million. Some of the experiments were even disregarded due to the pandemic. PETA Vice President Shalin Gala criticized the wasted public resources and questioned why these animals were being used for experimentation if they were so easily disposed of.
Once #COVID19 shutdowns began, a killing spree of animals imprisoned in university labs took off.
If these sensitive animals are so easily considered “non-essential,” why does the government spend BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars on horrific experiments every year? pic.twitter.com/BIp41ikUiv
— PETA (@peta) August 22, 2020
While PETA and other organizations have been pressuring schools and testing facilities to reduce animal testing, PETA has come up with a new testing program that relies less on animal subjects. In a letter to the NIH, PETA requested an investigation into why so many animals were considered “nonessential” and subsequently killed.
PETA’s Shriya Swaminathan emphasized that there was no justification for wasting public resources on animals that were deemed unnecessary. Swaminathan also argued that if taxpayer funds were used to acquire and maintain these animals, the institutions should reimburse the funding agencies for the fiscal waste instead of seeking compensation.
