PETA Mourns Passing of Longtime Primate Advocate Dr. Shirley McGreal

PETA is mourning the passing of Dr. Shirley McGreal — founder of the International Primate Protection League (IPPL) and a fierce, longtime advocate for monkeys used in experiments. In 2020, she joined with PETA and a coalition of scientists, medical doctors, primatologists, and other experts in condemning National Institutes of Health (NIH) experimenter Elisabeth Murray’s painful and deadly behavioral experiments on rhesus macaques. In these tests, sensitive monkeys are inflicted with permanent brain damage and then terrified with fake but realistic-looking snakes and spiders.

“The thought of [rhesus macaques] living in tiny cages or [being held in] restraint chairs and undergoing multiple brain surgeries gives me nightmares. And to think this has been going on for decades at taxpayers’ expense! … I am also shocked that any veterinarian would participate in these cruel experiments.”

—Dr. Shirley McGreal

McGreal founded the IPPL in 1973 after living in Thailand and seeing caged primates destined to be sent to laboratories overseas or sold domestically as “pets.” A powerhouse for animals, she exposed primate smuggling operations, and her many years of advocacy helped secure bans on primate exportation in Bangladesh, India, and Thailand. Among other honors, she received the Order of the British Empire from Queen Elizabeth II and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance. She even helped PETA with its first-ever case in 1981: the Silver Spring monkeys.

Honor Dr. Shirley McGreal’s Legacy: Help Shut Down the Monkey Experiments She Condemned

Tell NIH that you won’t tolerate having your tax dollars pay for the torment of monkeys in Elisabeth Murray’s laboratory.