Johns Hopkins Gets Permit to Continue Experimenting on Barn Owls, After Lengthy Battle With PETA Over Animal Cruelty

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources issued Johns Hopkins University a new permit to perform what the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals or PETA calls "cruel" and "worthless" experiments on barn owls.

As specified in a Phys.org report, a Hopkins researcher can continue medical experiments on the said owls following a lengthy battle with PETA over "animal cruelty and permit complaints."

For years, the animal rights group has been campaigning to end the experiments claiming researchers are cutting the skulls of the owls, implanting electrodes in their brains, and running sensory tests before killing the birds.

The university has been unwavering in its support for the research of associate professor Shreesh Mysore, which focuses on deconstructing neural circuits in the brain and understanding how they shape behavior.

Euthanizing Birds

The Hopkins' MysoreLab study could produce a critical understanding of medical conditions, including autism, schizophrenia, and ADHD, so that researchers can develop better interventions and treatments, according to the university.

Essentially, experimenters are placing electrodes into the barn owls' brains. Then, they perform sensory tests on the birds and record what that particular brain is doing as the owls react to their environment. Owls are controlled during the tests.

While the implanted electrodes are not harmful or don't damage the birds, the birds are eventually euthanized, explained Erich Hutchinson, the director of Research Animal Resources, who oversees animal care at the university.

Unfortunately, Hutchinson said that for a neuroscience study, when one is studying the brain, the tissue he needs at the end of the experiment is the brain.

There's no way to collect that tissue in a manner that would preserve the animal's life. And thus, to collect that tissue, the animals must undergo humane euthanasia before collection.

Permit to Continue Experimenting

On June 10, the DNR issued the "Permit to possess Protected Species of Wild Birds," which allowed Mysore to continue its investigation, including euthanizing the birds.

Gregg Bortz, the media relations manager of DNR, said last month that the University has applied for and was given a permit to possess barn owls for scientific purposes, the appropriate permit for their captive-bred animals.

Meanwhile, Hopkins acknowledges that there was a lapse during the experiment period. Nonetheless, the stakeholders, which include Hopkins, the NIH, and the DNR, reviewed how it happened and concluded that there was a clerical error.

The work of Mysore is getting thoroughly reviewed every three years and yearly on a cursory basis, explained Hutchinson.

An Important Inititive

Essentially, the NIH reviews the research of Mysore regularly to determine if it is worthy of financial backing, added Hutchinson, a similar report from The Baltimore Sun specified.

According to public affairs specialist Emma Wojtowicz from the NIH, the grant stays active. More so, the agency has awarded over $1.9 million to the project. The NIH is the Mysore project's final arbiter.

Only 10 percent of the applications at NIH are financially backed, said Hutchinson adding, and thus, the fact that the study is getting funded for this means that the peers and the NIH believe that what's being done is essential.

Related information about Johns Hopkins' owl testing is shown on PETA's YouTube video below:

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