House in ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ to Become PETA Empathy Museum?

For Immediate Release:
October 25, 2021

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Known fictionally as “1428 Elm St.,” the Los Angeles house whose facade appears in the 1984 horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street is up for sale, with offers due by Halloween. So today, PETA sent a letter to Heather T. Roy and Learka Bosnak of Douglas Elliman Real Estate, urging the agents to give the home another turn in the spotlight—this time as a pop-up empathy museum to honor the hundreds of animals tortured in “monkey fright” experiments that have been conducted for decades using taxpayer funds from the National Institutes of Health and are still going on today.

While the film’s villain, Freddy Krueger, uses a razor-clawed glove to torture his victims in their sleep, real-life tormenter and government experimenter Elisabeth Murray cuts into monkeys’ heads, saws off a portion of their skulls to expose the brain, and then injects toxins into it. Afterward, the monkeys are placed alone in a small metal cage and experimenters set out to scare them with fake but realistic-looking snakes and spiders. Eventually, they’re killed.

“Krueger’s torment was fictional, but monkey fright experiments take place in a real-life house of horror,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA’s pop-up museum would foster empathy for animals used in fear experiments that no doubt give them nightmares until they’re killed.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use in experiments”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

PETA’s letter to Roy and Bosnak follows.

October 25, 2021

Heather T. Roy and Learka Bosnak

Real Estate Agents

Douglas Elliman

Dear Ms. Roy and Ms. Bosnak:

PETA entities have more than 9 million members and supporters globally, including hundreds of thousands across California. I’m writing to you on behalf of PETA U.S., the largest animal rights organization in the world, to learn more about the property located at 1428 N. Genesee Ave. in Spaulding Square. Given that this is the home known for appearing in the horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street, we’re interested in exploring the possibility of converting it into a pop-up empathy museum for the hundreds of monkeys tortured over the years in “monkey fright” experiments.

You may already be familiar with Freddy Krueger, who sadistically terrorizes, tortures, and kills his victims while they sleep using a razor-claw glove. Although he’s a fictional character, in real life, many victims undergo similar painful, frightening experiences in Elisabeth Murray’s “money fright” experiments conducted at the National Institutes of Health. She cuts into monkeys’ heads, saws off a portion of their skulls, chemically burns parts of their brains, confines them to a metal box, and then terrorizes them with realistic-looking rubber snakes and spiders. Afterward, she leaves the monkeys inside a stainless steel cage while she goes home to her expensive condominium.

We’re always looking for ways to call attention to the violence inherent in crude and cruel experiments, and this pop-up empathy museum would shed light on the way monkeys—who dream just as humans do—must relive the horror of their frightening and painful experiences every night. And during the day, they never know when new horrors will be inflicted on them. Our museum would also expose the cruel irony that an individual supposedly studying neuropsychiatric disorders engages in acts demonstrating a complete lack of empathy, much like Krueger.

Turning the Nightmare on Elm Street house into an empathy museum for these victims would help people remember that, just like humans, all animals are made of flesh and blood and are capable of experiencing fear and suffering as well as joy and love. Please let us know if this house could serve as a local pop-up museum to inspire visitors to oppose horrific, unnecessary tests on animals, at least until you sell it. Thank you for your consideration.

Very truly yours,

Ingrid Newkirk

President