Animal rights groups are demanding that state and federal authorities take action against Johns Hopkins University researchers for their experimental treatment of owls, monkeys and a pig.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on Wednesday sent a letter to Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby to request a criminal investigation into Johns Hopkins University over a professor’s experiments on barn owls.
A team led by Shreesh Mysore, an assistant professor in JHU’s departments of neuroscience and psychological and brain sciences, adheres electrodes to the owls’ brains to monitor their brain activity as they receive visual and auditory stimuli.
The procedures are part of Mysore’s studies into human medical conditions related to focus and sensory experiences, including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia and autism.
For more than two years, PETA has argued that Mysore’s experiments are “cruel” and unnecessary.
But JHU officials have disputed these claims.
“At Johns Hopkins, we are dedicated to rigorous, ground-breaking, and ethical research. Virtually every significant step toward alleviating human suffering, and better treating animal health needs, has been the result of insights learned from laboratory animals,” a JHU spokesperson said in a statement to Baltimore Fishbowl. “Dr. Mysore’s research has already yielded new and critical insights that can potentially inform our understanding of deficits found in a number of medical conditions afflicting tens of millions of humans, including ADHD, autism, schizophrenia and Parkinson’s. Such research is essential so that doctors can develop better interventions and treatments to help people in need.
“Full-time specialist veterinarians provide 24/7 care to our animals who are properly housed in environments that meet and exceed rigorous standards. The humane treatment of research animals is incredibly important to us at Johns Hopkins and a responsibility that all of us take very seriously.”
PETA also alleges that Mysore had conducted experiments on owls without a permit for several years.
In a May 2021 letter from Maryland Department of Natural Resources Secretary Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio to PETA officials, Haddaway-Riccio confirmed that Mysore’s original scientific collecting permit expired on Dec. 31, 2014. Mysore reapplied for a permit on December 14, 2018, which was awarded, the JHU Newsletter reported, but the gap without a permit was about four years.
State officials told Mysore that he must renew the permit annually, and that operating without an active permit is a violation that could potentially result in “enforcement action and foreclosure of the research project.”
Due to the lapse in permitting, PETA alleges Mysore violated Maryland’s anti-cruelty laws and the group is urging an investigation.
“JHU’s ACUC [animal care and use committee] should not have approved the experimental protocol without ensuring compliance with state law, thus invalidating the applicability of the exemption that otherwise would immunize the ACUC’s authorization of Mysore’s painful, deadly experiments on barn owls from penalties pursuant to Maryland’s cruelty-to-animals laws,” wrote Shalin Gala, vice president of international laboratory methods at PETA, in the letter to Mosby.
In April, PETA filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) over Mysore’s owl experiments.
The organization and its supporters have also held protests at the university in opposition to the experiments, including one on Saturday.
In a separate case, another animal rights organization, Stop Animal Exploitation Now! (SAEN), on Tuesday sent a complaint to the USDA against JHU.
In their complaint, SAEN alleges that a pig being used in a cardiac study was injured during observations by JHU researchers. Unable to stand on its own, the pig was euthanized and a necropsy revealed that the animal had two broken elbows, the complaint alleges.
SAEN alleges that JHU staff failed to report the pig with broken elbows to veterinary care and “routinely denied animals pain relief during procedures.”
In that same complaint, SAEN also alleges that three monkeys were euthanized due to infection from “environmental [contaminants]” during surgical cranial implants
“These two violations alone demonstrate both major incompetence and a glaring failure by the Johns Hopkins University research administration to [ensure] that regulations are followed,” SAEN wrote.
The organization reiterated their complaints in a letter to Johns Hopkins University President Ronald Daniels, also on Tuesday.
This article has been updated with comment from Johns Hopkins University.
Owls used in these experiments are subjected to severe pain and distress. Their skulls are cut open, their brains are exposed, and metal devices are screwed and glued onto their heads. They are restrained for up to 12 hours at a time. They are bombarded with lights and sound while electrodes are poked around in their brains—all while they’re fully conscious. Once their brain tissue is mutilated beyond use, they are killed.
Tormenting and killing owls is a waste of taxpayer money and does nothing to benefit human health. Owls’ brains have significant differences from humans’ brains—for example, their visual and auditory systems are specialized in target selection, unlike humans. Johns Hopkins itself admits that owls are used in these experiments because they are convenient, not because of solid science. It’s time for JHU to end these scientifically dubious, extremely cruel experiments, and switch to non-animal, human-relevant research.
Owls are so beautiful and many of them mate for life. This is just so wrong and sad.
Thank you for covering this, as it is highly disturbing that JHU hurts owls for bogus science. I guess JHU doesn’t want to be regarded as a modern, progressive institution.
This sickens me that owls would be used for experiments.This needs to stop.
I’m sick by the way people act ……they will get there’s …kill the people and give the earth back to its self