VIDEO: PETA Supporter Challenges University of Massachusetts–Amherst Chancellor at Fenway
For Immediate Release:
May 31, 2024
Contact:
Brandi Pharris 202-483-7382
Moments ago, a PETA supporter stormed onto the field during a Red Sox game at Fenway Park, just as University of Massachusetts–Amherst Chancellor Javier Reyes was throwing out the first pitch, to highlight the school’s horrific menopause experiments on marmosets. Bearing a sign reading, “Chancellor Reyes: End Cruel Tests on Marmosets!,” the protester was escorted out by security. Photos and video of the disruption are available here.
Experimenters at the university screw electrodes onto monkeys’ skulls, surgically remove their ovaries, pump them full of hormones, and heat their bodies with hand warmers to mimic hot flashes in a bizarre attempt to study menopause—which marmosets don’t naturally experience. Experimenters also cut into their necks, deprive them of water, restrain them for hours at a time, and torment them in various other ways before killing them.
“While Chancellor Reyes frolics at Fenway, tiny monkeys are being tormented at the university in cruel and scientifically worthless experiments,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “PETA calls on Chancellor Reyes to shut down this disgraceful laboratory and urges the school to switch to modern, animal-free research methods that might actually benefit women.”
PETA has been contacted by numerous University of Massachusetts–Amherst alumni and donors concerned about the school’s animal welfare violations. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has cited the university for severely burning a marmoset with hand warmers as he was recovering from surgery, failing to alert an attending veterinarian to sick animals, and permitting several monkeys to escape and sustain injuries.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
