UW Ousts Primate Center Director: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
June 12, 2024

Contact:
Amanda Hays 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA primate scientist Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel regarding the removal of Michele Basso as director of the Washington National Primate Center at the University of Washington on May 31, which was just confirmed today:

PETA celebrates the removal of Michele Basso as director of the Washington National Primate Research Center just two months after we provided the University of Washington Board of Regents with evidence of her failings and called for her dismissal. Basso, as the face of the primate center, embodied the inhumanity, arrogance, and sheer incompetence of the institution. She refused to work cooperatively with staff, botched surgical implants into the skulls of monkeys, and oversaw multiple violations of federal animal welfare laws and worker injuries. Basso’s removal doesn’t change the imperative for the university to embrace better science and stop experimenting on monkeys altogether.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.