Animal Partisan seeks criminal charges against former Virginia Tech researcher over neglect of two bats

February 10, 2025

Animal Partisan has lodged a complaint with the Montgomery County, Virginia Commonwealth’s Attorney requesting that two counts of cruelty to animals be filed against a former animal researcher at Virginia Tech.

The complaint stems from a March 28, 2024 incident in which the Virginia Tech researcher received a shipment over 100 fruit bats from Colorado. The bats were part of Virginia Tech’s colony of research bats housed in the university’s Integrated Life Sciences Building, a 77,000 square foot concrete and glass structure.

According to records obtained by Animal Partisan, upon receipt of the shipment of bats, the researcher identified that one bat had died in transport and two other bats were “very weak and lethargic.” Although Virginia Tech’s own protocol tasked the researcher with summoning emergency veterinary assistance, he disregarded the protocol and instead attempted to provide the ailing animals with food and water. After suffering without veterinary assistance for 12 hours, the two bats ultimately died.  

Virginia law criminalizes any act that deprives an animal of “emergency veterinary treatment.” This conduct is punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor with a maximum of 12 months in jail and/or a fine of $2,500. Animal Partisan’s complaint alleges that, by failing to summon emergency veterinary assistance over the course of 12 hours, the researcher deprived the two fruit bats of emergency veterinary treatment as required by law. The complaint asks the Commonwealth’s Attorney to file criminal charges against the researcher and seek a fine of $5,000 for two counts of cruelty.

Virginia Tech’s animal research program has a sordid history of animal welfare issues. According to the university’s most recent USDA annual report, its animal research program houses over 2,000 animals who are used in research. These numbers include 25 dogs, 183 pigs, and 33 horses, but do not include countless mice, rats, and other small animals whose numbers are not required to be reported to the USDA.

Notably, in 2024, Virginia Tech entered into a settlement with the USDA to pay a fine of $18,950—one of the largest fines paid by any animal research facility in the last six years—based on a series of violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act. These violations included a parade of failures to ensure the humane treatment of animals used in research, including: (1) denial of proper veterinary care to several pigs involved in a traumatic brain injury experiment, (2) failure to provide proper care to a dairy cow experiencing heat stress, (3) prolonged starvation of a 6-day old piglet, (4) strangulation of a gerbil while attempting to restrain the animal during a botched blood draw, and other incidents reflecting deficiencies in animal care. Notably, Virginia Tech entered into this agreement just one week before the two bats were left to die in the hands of the university’s then-researcher.  

Given its deplorable history of animal welfare, it comes as no surprise that Virginia Tech actively resisted any efforts to improve transparency into animal research that were considered as part of a legislatively mandated task force in Virginia.

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