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A recent flood of whistleblower and student reports connected to a veterinary program at Cairo University in Egypt and other universities across that country paints a picture of cruelty to animals so grotesque and severe it appears to violate the nation’s constitution and law.
In letters sent out this week, PETA demands that the school and government officials launch an immediate investigation, require the use of superior and humane simulation models, and prohibit the use of animals in veterinary training involving procedures that are neither medically necessary nor of direct benefit to the animals involved.
An informant—who leaked video footage to PETA Asia reportedly showing a dog, in October 2024, tied to and standing on a metal railing outside of Cairo University, crying in distress—told us that instructors kept the dog in a room without food and water for days and subjected him to different invasive procedures, injections, and an overdose of anesthesia.
Students have reported that dogs endure multiple invasive surgeries, often without proper anesthesia. These claims are supplemented by whistleblower reports to PETA that describe animals “being caught, starved, and kept in bags for extended periods” and reportedly being “electrocuted while still alive and used for live dissection in front of students.”
Students in numerous social media posts on Facebook and Instagram expressed that they’ve felt “traumatized” by this abject cruelty passing as education. Some call on the university to “implement ethical treatment standards and proper veterinary protocols.”
PETA is offering to have our international team of scientists consult with Cairo University and government officials to help modernize science teaching, including by helping them obtain advanced, animal-free, humane models. PETA has previously helped Egypt’s Advanced Trauma Life Support program replace its use of animals with state-of-the-art human simulation models.
Previous Cruelty
In 2012, Cairo University students reported that dogs were tied, dragged, and thrown out of a third-floor window after being used. Students also levied several cruelty-to-animals allegations against the veterinary faculty.
At the time, PETA Asia wrote to the school’s dean of veterinary medicine regarding disturbing videos that showed cruelty to animals perpetrated in the veterinary program. Dogs are seen being tied down, beaten with sticks, and stomped on before being used in trainings, and a donkey is seen undergoing anal electrocution.
PETA asked then, as we do now, for the school to move to a cruelty-free curriculum and we offered our assistance. Unfortunately, it appears the animal abuse at the school continues.
Humane Training Methods Exist
Mutilating and killing animals for veterinary training is unethical and unnecessary.
Veterinarians-to-be can use simulation models for advanced surgical training and to learn basic skills such as IV catheter placement, blood draws, intubation, restraint, radiographic positioning, and critical care monitoring. Numerous breed-specific realistic models that can be repeatedly operated on are readily available. Several virtual anatomical models, some endorsed by the American Association of Veterinary Anatomists, are also available.
There are precedents for transitioning to humane veterinary training methods. After calls in 2022 from PETA to Pakistan officials and institutions to ban harmful and medically unnecessary veterinary training on animals, Salman Sufi, then-head of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s Strategic Reforms Unit, announced historic new measures in Pakistan, stating, “Live testing of animals in vet colleges and industrial complexes is banned from today in Islamabad Capital Territory.
What You Can Do
We’ll keep you updated on this case. In the meantime, please take action today and urge Oregon Health & Science University to abandon its cruel, deadly training on live pigs and adopt a public policy permanently banning the use of live animals in its OB/GYN residency training program.
Stop Killing Pigs
