A legal fight with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) over the release of documents—including the names of institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) members—has already cost the University of Washington (UW) more than $540,000 in fines and penalties alone, and it’s not over yet.

At the same time, PETA and the University of Massachusetts Amherst are also embroiled in litigation, which the animal rights group filed in September related to primate research, including videos and protocols and IACUC names. PETA officials also vow to pursue other universities and research institutions in court for what it says are violations of state public meeting and records laws.

“While many universities do release the names of the IACUC members, some are secretive. We are looking carefully at public institutions with numerous violations that aren’t transparent and will file suit as necessary,” Kathy Guillermo, PETA senior vice president, laboratory investigations, told RRC. “We will be looking at additional lawsuits, but we aren’t far enough along to say where yet.”

In the last two years, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which enforces the Animal Welfare Act that governs research involving animals, has fined six universities and research institutions.^[1] UW is among them.

In October, King County Superior Court Judge Suzanne Parisien ordered UW to pay PETA $277,584 in attorneys’ fees, $12,318 in costs (such as for videotaping depositions) and $250,000 in penalties stemming from its handling of PETA’s records requests under the state Public Records Act (PRA). Among PETA’s requests was “the amount of settlements and judgments” it paid for previous violations of the PRA.