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Update (October 12, 2026): Victory! In another significant win for animals, sustained efforts by PETA and the veterinary group Our Honor have convinced Washington State University to spare goats and sheep from gruesome deaths in a veterinary surgical training laboratory.
The animals were slated for terminal procedures, but tens of thousands of supporters like you contacted administrators, urging them to reconsider. The university’s decision ends a large-animal surgery course in which animals were killed at the conclusion. In announcing the decision, the university pointed to other ways students receive surgical and anesthesia training:
WSU will discontinue the elective large animal surgery course previously offered within our veterinary training program… Today, students receive extensive surgical and anesthesia training through live-recovery procedures in junior surgery, required shelter and community medicine rotations, and clinically relevant large animal preceptorships and externships.
– Dean Dori Borjesson, Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine
Original publication:
Recently, more than 36,000 messages from PETA supporters and the veterinarian group Our Honor successfully convinced Washington State University to cancel its planned horse-killing laboratory, saving eight healthy and adoptable horses from certain death. But the fate of the horses is still in limbo.
PETA is now urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which has custody of the horses, to immediately release the horses to a sanctuary, instead of sending them to another laboratory for experimentation and death. Please lend your powerful voice once more!
How We Got Here
PETA joined with veterinarians, veterinary students, and alumni in urging the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine to cancel its plans to kill eight healthy horses and 60 goats in an antiquated Junior Surgery laboratory, where veterinary students cut into the animals to practice complicated abdominal surgeries.
Compassionate veterinarian group Our Honor, which took on the issue after veterinary students raised concerns, says sanctuaries and alternative placements are ready to accept all healthy, adoptable animals.
The university's animal use policy states that the Junior Surgery laboratory may use only animals destined for slaughter. But these eight horses were moved from a USDA experimentation program, raising questions about whether the school's animal care committee—the last line of defense for animals in laboratories—was given proper information.
Numerous veterinary schools have replaced terminal laboratories with clinical-based surgical training programs, where students perform necessary and beneficial procedures for animals under supervision. These programs often partner with rural communities lacking access to veterinary services. PETA urges the university to adopt these and other widely available humane simulation methods.
What You Can Do
Please take action below to urge the USDA, which reportedly has custody of the horses, to immediately release them to a sanctuary where they can live out their lives in peace.
After you take action, you’ll see an easy way to share this information. Please ask five friends or relatives to support this campaign!