PULLMAN, Wash. — Washington State University has abruptly canceled a veterinary surgery course after the school received threatening emails about the program’s use of live animals.
The large animal surgery course, offered through the College of Veterinary Medicine, required students to perform procedures on live animals that were then euthanized. The university made the decision to end the horse component of the course immediately, citing safety concerns for students, faculty and staff.
In the third-year elective class, students gained hands-on experience by performing procedures on live goats and horses. The school purchased horses from the United States Department of Agriculture, which had been using the animals to study infectious diseases. WSU believed all of the horses they were acquiring carried infectious diseases and would be euthanized regardless.
However, fourth-year veterinary student Larrea Cottingham discovered that wasn’t the case for the eight horses WSU had purchased for the spring semester. She learned that some horses from the USDA program had been put up for adoption, prompting her to question the status of WSU’s horses.
“They were not infected with disease and had they not been part of the terminal lab, they could have been eligible for adoption under the USDA policy,” Cottingham said.
Cottingham shared emails confirming this information with the dean of the veterinary school. The dean acknowledged that had they had known in time, the class could have been altered, and the horses could have been adopted.
“It’s just a different moral consideration on how to use an animal if they were going to be killed anyway versus, they could have gone on to live a life somewhere as someone’s pet,” Cottingham said.
After learning this information, Cottingham shared it with the students in the class. When she received pushback, she turned to the animal advocacy group “Our Honor” and with their help, wrote a press release. The release was eventually picked up by other organizations including PETA, and went viral.
The publicity generated calls and letters to the university urging changes to the curriculum. However, some of those communications crossed the line into threats.
“I’m really disappointed that some people took the call to action to write letters and call the school persuading them to change their curriculum that some of those calls have been threatening,” Cottingham said.
WSU had already planned to end the terminal horse lab portion of the course by the end of this semester. According to the university, that decision was made in 2025. However, the university accelerated that timeline due to the threatening communications it received.
The university issued a statement saying it received threats toward members of its community and decided to cancel the horse component of the course immediately for the safety of students, faculty and staff.
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