Tell UGA to stop conducting cruel animal experiments!

The University of Georgia (UGA) conducted experiments that resulted in dogs getting burned from electrical current passed through their limbs as part of an anesthesia study. Although UGA has indicated that the experiments have ended, this is just one of a serious pattern of animal welfare violations.

UGA must end these despicable experiments that led to federal violations and instead take seriously their commitment to the 3Rs by replacing cruel animal experiments with modern, superior non-animal methods that advance medicine and spare animal suffering.

The University of Georgia (UGA) conducted experiments that resulted in dogs getting burned from electrical current passed through their limbs as part of an anesthesia study. Although UGA has indicated that the experiments have ended, this is just one of a serious pattern of animal welfare violations.

UGA must end these despicable experiments that led to federal violations and instead take seriously their commitment to the 3Rs by replacing cruel animal experiments with modern, superior non-animal methods that advance medicine and spare animal suffering.

Tell UGA: Time to end cruel animal experiments!

Please send an email urging the University of Georgia to replace cruel and outdated experiments on dogs and other animals with modern, animal-free alternatives.

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I was deeply disturbed to learn about experiments conducted at the University of Georgia (UGA) that resulted in dogs getting burned from electrical current passed through their limbs as part of an anesthesia study. While UGA has indicated that the experiments have ended, I am writing to make sure that such experiments are never again allowed to resume.

University of Georgia was fined $12,000 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in January 2024 for multiple, serious animal welfare violations that included the dog anesthesia experiment. Dogs were exposed to electrical current as a “noxious” stimulus that was supposed to be safely administered to assess their response to anesthesia. Due to human error, the electrical current was left running on one dog for the duration of the study, rather than being turned off promptly. That dog sustained third-degree burns requiring surgical debridement and further treatment. Two other dogs suffered less serious burns from the electric current.

Unfortunately, this disturbing event is part of a serious pattern of animal welfare violations. Between 2021 – 2024, UGA was cited by the USDA for violations at every single inspection, for a total of 17 violations, 10 of which were critical.

These violations included (but were not limited to) two rabbits who died from incorrect central venous catheter placement, a ferret who died from poor anesthesia techniques, an emaciated deer with pneumonia who died from a lack of observation, and two hamsters who died from an inappropriate blood collection method that was not approved by the institutional animal care committee.

UGA claims to adhere to the 3R’s principles (reduction, replacement and refinement) for animal research, but the university’s high use of animals and unacceptable record of animal care conveys otherwise.

Exceptional scientists are conducting research using animal-free methods such as microphysiological systems (organoids, organ chips), novel clinical trials, in silico trials, computer modelling, multi-modal imaging, and gene sequencing. These same techniques are available to UGA’s scientists and applicable to their experiments.

For example, the dog anesthesia experiment could have been conducted as a clinical trial using dogs undergoing anesthesia at UGA’s veterinary clinic, rather than purchasing purpose-bred dogs from suppliers, who are then forced to spend their lives in the confinement of a laboratory and subjected to invasive and painful research with little regard for their well-being.

I strongly urge UGA to put more effort and resources into upholding the 3Rs by replacing cruel animal experiments with modern, superior non-animal methods that advance medicine and spare animal suffering.

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