The Louisiana State University system (LSU) has repeatedly shown a “complete disregard for animal welfare and humane treatment” in their animal laboratories. Below are just a few recent examples Rise for Animals has uncovered:

• In the Fall of 2019, an experimenter cut up the hind legs of mice without any pain medication, leaving many crippled and unable to even reach water. To make matters worse, the lights went off in the building and he did the surgeries by the light of his cell phone.
• In September 2019, an experimenter left 9 mice with large open head incisions to languish without pain medicine purely for her convenience. She was waiting to gas them to death at the same time. Even the staff veterinarian who found her asked if “it was appropriate to have conscious mice with large open wounds rolling around in bedding for hours before euthanasia.”
• In the Summer of 2019, an experimenter used an Uber to go to the airport and pick up birds they had a vendor ship via airline. The severity of this noncompliance led the LSU committee that oversees animal experiments to suspend the protocols for 8 weeks.
• In February 2019, PETA uncovered that LSU’s School of Veterinary Medicine was buying homeless dogs from animal shelters and using them in deadly training laboratories.
• In June 2018, LSU’s oversight committee suspended two rat experiment protocols due to numerous ongoing noncompliance issues.

This complete disregard for animal welfare is not just one rogue experimenter. It’s an institutional problem, and LSU must be held accountable.

The LSU system received more than $70 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2019, much of which was used for cruel animal experiments. Join Rise for Animals to urge the NIH to stop handing out taxpayer dollars to LSU for painful experiments on animals.