Campaign Updates: Deadly Tests on Owls at Johns Hopkins University

At a laboratory at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in Baltimore, experimenter Shreesh Mysore cuts open barn owls’ skulls, screws metal devices onto their heads, restrains the birds, and bombards them for hours with noises and lights. PETA is waging a campaign to end these cruel and deadly experiments—and you can help.

Student Wears Graduation Cap Urging Freedom for Owls at JHU as PETA Protests During Commencement

May 27, 2021

As students prepare to leave Johns Hopkins University (JHU) with diplomas in hand, Shreesh Mysore locks barn owls away to endure agonizing brain experiments before being killed. PETA demonstrated outside JHU’s graduation ceremony to pressure the university to end these cruel experiments, which don’t advance human health. Graduating senior Lana Weidgenant wore a cap decorated with the slogan “Free the JHU Owls” to show her support for PETA’s demands to shut the owl lab down.

UC-Davis Students and PETA Urge School to Cancel Owl Torturer’s Talk

May 20, 2021

Concerned students at the University of California–Davis sent a letter—in addition to a letter sent by PETA—to that school’s chair of neuroscience, urging the cancellation of a talk by Johns Hopkins University owl tormentor Shreesh Mysore. The letters call out the cruel and invasive experiments on owls that Mysore conducted illegally for years without the mandatory state permits and demand that UC-Davis replace his talk with a seminar on more effective, ethical, economical, non-animal research methods.

Maryland Confirms That Mysore’s Owl Tests Have Been Illegal for “Years”

May 5, 2021

JHU experimenter Shreesh Mysore apparently has as much contempt for the law as he does for his animal victims. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources has confirmed that the notorious experimenter repeatedly broke state law for “years” by failing to obtain the legally required permits to possess barn owls for invasive brain tests. PETA is demanding that the agency revoke Mysore’s current permit, that JHU shut down his owl laboratory, and that the National Institutes of Health recoup the tax money that it wasted on his hideous owl experiments and deny any future grant requests that he makes to conduct such archaic tests.

Shreesh Mysore’s experiments on owls aren’t just immoral, they were illegal for “years” according to Maryland state officials.

‘Owl’ Delivers Petitions to JHU Condemning Deadly Tests

April 7, 2021

Students are writing essays and studying hard for exams, but there’s one lesson that JHU President Ronald J. Daniels still needs to learn. PETA protesters, including one dressed as an owl, delivered a cart full of boxes containing petitions from more than 270,000 supporters urging Daniels to end Shreesh Mysore’s horrific brain experiments on owls at the university. This petition is a wakeup call that the public will not stand by as owls are tormented for junk science.

JHU Senior Condemns Cruel Owl Experiments on Campus

March 8, 2021

Spring break is fast approaching at Johns Hopkins University, but one student is speaking up for the victims of animal testing, who don’t get to leave campus for vacation. Senior Lana Weidgenant has penned a cutting rebuke of Shreesh Mysore’s notorious barn owl experiments at the university. Writing to the editor of the school’s student newspaper, The Johns Hopkins News-Letter, Weidgenant underscores Mysore’s waste of resources, poor scientific methodology, and apparent failure to attain legal permits to use owls in his laboratory. She succinctly concludes, “Hopkins should shut the owl lab down immediately.”

PETA Exposes Owl Tormentor’s Missing Permits, Calls For Ban

February 23, 2021

Shreesh Mysore may treat barn owls like unfeeling pieces of lab equipment, but they’re a protected species. So experimenters in Maryland must obtain permits to lock them in their laboratories. However, when PETA requested proof of Mysore’s permits through the state’s Freedom of Information Act, we discovered that the ones for 2015 through 2018 were missing. Apparently, neither Mysore nor anyone else in his lab had bothered to apply for or obtain them.

If experimenters can’t even bother to file simple paperwork with the state, they shouldn’t be allowed to conduct complex brain surgeries on live animals. Given this apparent flagrant violation of state law, we’ve sent a letter to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources urging it to revoke Mysore’s current permit to keep owls in his laboratory and to prohibit him from obtaining any permits in the future.

PETA Protesters in Owl Masks Hold a ‘Screech-In’  Against Johns Hopkins’ Owl Torture Experiments

January 25, 2021

On the first day of spring semester classes at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), a parliament of PETA protesters wearing owl masks came in for a (socially distanced) landing on campus to protest university experimenter Shreesh Mysore’s appallingly cruel, admittedly worthless, and apparently illegal brain experiments on barn owls. PETA also placed an eye-catching ad last week in The Washington Times calling on the National Eye Institute to stop funding the tests.

PETA Launches Ad in The Hill, Mobile Billboard Tours Campus, and Activists Hang Banner Over Highway to Call For End to Tests

December 8, 2020

Just in time for the end of Johns Hopkins University’s (JHU) fall semester, PETA has placed an eye-catching new ad in The Hill calling on the National Eye Institute to stop funding JHU’s gruesome and deadly brain experiments on barn owls. The same day (December 8), a mobile billboard circulated the ad around campus, blasting audio recordings of screeching owls taken inside a JHU laboratory. In addition, the next day, a group of PETA supporters wearing masks and practicing social distancing unfurled a gigantic banner from a highway overpass to demand that JHU end its cruel brain experiments on owls.

Ad in ‘The Johns Hopkins News-Letter’ Calls Out ‘Horrific’ Owl Experiments at JHU

November 13, 2020

To reach students who are learning online this semester, PETA has placed a new ad on the website of The Johns Hopkins News-Letter (the school’s student newspaper). The ad features the image of a parliament of owls shouting, “We object to torture!” at an image of  JHU experimenter Shreesh Mysore, who is seen performing an invasive, cruel, and worthless brain experiment on an owl.

Johns Hopkins Official Faces Protest at His Home

October 20, 2020

Wearing masks and practicing social distancing, PETA supporters gathered in front of the home of JHU School of Medicine Dean Paul Rothman to demand that he shut down the worthless and apparently illegal experiments on owls being carried out on his watch.

‘Harry Potter’ Star Evanna Lynch Urges Johns Hopkins to Shut Down Owl Lab

October 19, 2020

Actor Evanna Lynch, best known as Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter series, sent a letter on PETA’s behalf calling on the president of Johns Hopkins University to end the school’s brain experiments on barn owls, writing, “There can be no ethical justification for this grotesque cruelty.”

PETA Files Federal and University Complaints: Mysore Apparently Violated Law, Admits Practice of Bolting Animals’ Skulls in His Tests is Flawed

October 1, 2020

In complaints filed today with the National Eye Institute and Johns Hopkins University, PETA points to a recent audio recording in which Shreesh Mysore acknowledges that experimenting on owls whose heads are surgically fixed in place could “change the way the brain is solving problems and we might misinterpret what’s happening, or misunderstand, if we do this in head-fixed animals.” Yet in his experiments, he attaches bolts to owls’ skulls in order to hold their heads in a fixed position in addition to locking the animals in restraining devices for up to 12 hours at a time, clamping their eyes open, and bombarding them with noises and lights.

PETA also notes in our letters that Mysore appears to have violated Maryland law in having failed from 2015 to 2018 to obtain a required permit to possess protected birds. Currently, 50 to 60 barn owls are slated to be used in his experiments, including six birds just for surgical practice for his staff.

PETA Calls For End to Cruel and Wasteful Tests As JHU’s Fall Semester Begins

August 31, 2020

PETA is kicking off the fall semester at Johns Hopkins University with a new ad placed on six bus shelters near campus calling for an end to the school’s gruesome and deadly brain experiments on barn owls. In addition, to reach students who are learning online this semester, PETA has placed the ad on the website of The Johns Hopkins News-Letter (the school’s student newspaper) as well as in The Baltimore Sun and on Facebook.

Citywide Ad Blitz Exposes Johns Hopkins’ Deadly Brain Tests on Owls

August 4, 2020

August 4 is International Owl Awareness Day, and PETA has launched a new ad blitz to raise awareness of the plight of the owls tormented in laboratories at Johns Hopkins University (JHU). Our eye-opening full-page ad slamming the school’s cruel experiments will debut in The Baltimore Sun as well as on The Sun‘s website and on Facebook. Later this month, it will be posted on six bus shelters near JHU’s Baltimore campus. The ads will let Baltimore residents know how they can speak out against JHU’s junk-science brain experiments on owls, which cause immense suffering, squander taxpayer funds, and aren’t applicable to humans. Check out one version:

Johns Hopkins Owl Experimenter Faces Protest at Home

June 25, 2020

Wearing masks and practicing social distancing, PETA supporters gathered outside JHU experimenter Mysore’s home to call for an end to his cruel brain experiments on owls.

Drive-By Protest Rolls Into Mysore’s Neighborhood

May 21, 2020

Undeterred by social-distancing requirements in the age of COVID-19, activists staged a pandemic-safe protest to speak up for owls, driving cars emblazoned with the message “JHU, Modernize Your Research: Leave Owls Alone” through the neighborhoods of Mysore and JHU President Ronald Daniels. PETA also ran an eye-catching ad in The Baltimore Sun condemning Mysore’s crude owl experiments.

https://www.facebook.com/official.peta/videos/380512156202677

PETA Urges JHU to Cut Animal Experiments, Not Employee Benefits

May 11, 2020

As a result of the financial strain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, JHU announced that it would prepare for layoffs and suspend contributions to employees’ retirement plans. In a letter to the university’s president, PETA proposed a better solution for employees and animals—cut wasteful and cruel experiments on animals, starting with Mysore’s deadly tests on barn owls.

PETA Exposes Agony for Monkeys and Other Animals in JHU Laboratories

March 18, 2020

PETA fired off a letter to JHU and released damning reports and photographs obtained from the U.S. Department of Agriculture revealing repeated violations of the Animal Welfare Act, the only federal law to provide even meager protection for animals in laboratories. Monkeys were left to suffer from untreated medical conditions, and some were apparently driven by stress and a lack of stimulation to tear out their own hair.

This is another gentle monkey at JHU whose hair has almost completely fallen out. The only hair left is on the head and wrists.

PETA Calls BS on JHU’s Denial of COVID-19 Killing Spree

March 16, 2020

When JHU’s associate director of research animal resources, Eric Hutchinson, stated that “no mice or any other animals have been euthanized in an effort to conserve resources” at the school during the COVID-19 pandemic, PETA called his bluff—and urged the university to use this moment as an opportunity to end all of its cruel and ineffective animal experiments.

Ad in The Baltimore Sun Calls Out ‘Horrific’ Owl Experiments at JHU

December 17, 2019

“JHU Doesn’t Give Two Hoots About Animal Welfare,” announces PETA’s ad, which features the image of a majestic barn owl and ran online and in print in The Baltimore Sun, Maryland’s largest newspaper.

JHU Students and Others Demonstrate for Owls Still Suffering in Mysore’s Lab

December 6, 2019

Unfurling a banner calling for an end to experiments on animals at JHU, members of the school’s student group CARE and other local activists assembled at the entrance to campus to protest Mysore’s barbaric brain experiments on owls. Their unique polygon owl masks and bold signs grabbed the attention of passing motorists and pedestrians.

PETA Vice President Alka Chandna Takes Speaking Tour to JHU

October 24, 2019

Speaking as part of a symposium about animal-free testing methods held at JHU, PETA Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Dr. Alka Chandna highlighted the various human-relevant, non-animal methods available to replace crude animal tests like Mysore’s brain experiments on owls.

Attendees at the event were invited to take free literature and samples of cruelty-free products.

Protesters Hit JHU Ahead of Owl Awareness Day

August 1, 2019

In recognition of International Owl Awareness Day on August 4, more than a dozen PETA supporters demonstrated on a busy sidewalk near JHU with signs that demanded, “JHU: Stop Tormenting Owls!”

Owl Expert Stephen Jones Pens Letter to JHU President Ronald Daniels

July 13, 2019

“These practices sound more like something from the Inquisition than from the research laboratory of an esteemed university,” wrote Stephen Jones—a raptor specialist and wildlife consultant with the Boulder County Audubon Society in Colorado—of Mysore’s cruel, medieval-seeming experiments on owls.

PETA Scientist Slams Experimenter’s ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ for Owls in Op-Ed

June 27, 2019

In her op-ed in the Daily Caller, neuroscientist Dr. Katherine Roe decries the blatant cruelty and waste of Mysore’s barn owl experiments, which have raked in more than $1.3 million in taxpayer dollars for JHU but have produced no treatments or cures for people suffering from attention deficit disorders.

‘Owls’ Flock Outside Experimenter Shreesh Mysore’s Office to Protest His Experiments

June 26, 2019

Wearing owl masks and blasting audio recordings of screeching owls taken inside a JHU laboratory, PETA supporters gathered outside Mysore’s office to call for an end to his abuse of owls.

Ad Starring a Teddy Bear Blasts Animal Experiments in Baltimore

November 14, 2018

PETA’s nongraphic, Telly Award–winning ad—which features an unfortunate teddy bear who is strapped down, injected with chemicals, cut open, and killed like thousands of real animals in laboratories every day—ran on TV in Baltimore, Mysore’s home turf.

PETA Reveals Torment of Barn Owls in a JHU Laboratory

October 30, 2018

Funded by millions of dollars from JHU and unwitting taxpayers, experimenter Mysore cuts into the skulls of barn owls, inserts electrodes into their brains, forces them to look at screens for hours a day, and bombards them with noises and lights in tests that are irrelevant for human health.

This owl is one of many imprisoned in Shreesh Mysore’s laboratory, where he cuts into their skulls and screws metal devices onto their heads in curiosity-driven experiments that have no relevance for human health.

End These Experiments Now