Marty Gordon
NRVsports@mainstreetnewspapers.com
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has filed a Virginia Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), alleging the university is unlawfully withholding public records related to taxpayer-funded, traumatic brain injury experiments that injured and killed multiple Gӧttingen minipigs.
Virginia Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski said he cannot comment on matters related to current litigation. However, he stated that Virginia Tech conducts all its research in full compliance with state and federal law.
In an release, the animal rights nonprofit organization said they requested videos and photos of the pigs last year after obtaining records from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The items, according to PETA, revealed that four pigs died in gruesome experiments in which staff used a high-pressure blast to injure the animals’ brains.
“Virginia Tech has refused to provide the records, claiming they’re exempt under the state’s open records law,” said PETA, who points that is not true under current written law.
The incident in question involving the mini pigs, resulted in a federal animal welfare violation, which was one of seven for which the USDA fined Virginia Tech a civil penalty of $18,950, a rare action for the agency.
In its settlement agreement with the university, the USDA said the experimenters’ actions “led to potentially preventable deaths and pain for the surviving pigs.”
