PETA Buys Shares of DeVry

By Kevin Robinson in News on Aug 26, 2008 4:45PM

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals bought 65 shares of Chicago-based DeVry University last week, part of a plan to escalate its campaign against the technical school's veterinary program. PETA plans to show up at DeVry's November 13 shareholders meeting to stage a protest and appeal to the board. According to the animal welfare organization, the St. Kitts-based Ross University veterinary school requires their students to operate on healthy animals. PETA charges that "healthy dogs have their stomachs, intestines and urinary bladders needlessly cut open. Sheep have tissue removed and suffer from infected wounds because skin flaps are improperly sutured. Donkeys have the nerves in their toes severed, their ligaments cut, plastic tubes inserted through their noses to their stomachs, their abdomens punctured, their tracheas (windpipes) cut, and fluid removed from their joints – after which they are killed so that students can practise amputating animals’ bones and drilling into their skulls."

“We believe it is a violation of the island’s treatment of animals act,” said PETA Research Associate Shalin Gala. Gala says that the school has stopped operating on dogs, but continue to use live sheep and donkeys as part of the curriculum. If PETA is unsuccessful in getting the school to change its practices at the shareholders meeting, they intend to file a shareholders resolution next year demanding an end to inhumane practices.