Updates: Campaign to Shut Down University of Washington’s Primate Center

For nearly 60 years, the failing, archaic, disease-ridden Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) at the University of Washington has tormented thousands of monkeys in painful experiments that have failed to improve human health. PETA is calling for the immediate closure of the facility—and you can help.

Arresting Art Exhibit Paints Portrait of Primate Prison Misery

October 23, 2024

PETA showcased provocative art pieces, including work by Colombian street artist Praxis, at an event space in downtown Seattle. The installment was part of a multimedia showcase designed to highlight the Washington National Primate Research Center’s decades-long record of misery and failure.

Racing ‘Monkey’ Urges University to Sprint Toward Better Science

October 13, 2024

PETA’s indomitable “monkey” mascot Dorothy participated in the Alaska Airlines Dawg Dash held at the University of Washington, reminding thousands of racers and attendees about the hidden horrors monkeys face in the school’s underground primate prison.

Massive ‘Monkeys’ Protest Top Animal Tormentors at World’s Largest Neuroscience Conference

October 5, 2024

Animal advocates rallied outside the Society for Neuroscience 2024 conference at McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, chanting into megaphones and accompanied by two 8-foot-tall crying “monkeys.” The conference included talks by Washington National Primate Research Center experimenters Elizabeth Buffalo and Michele Basso.

Tormented Monkey’s Message for New Students Highlights University’s Failing Grade in Basic Decency

September 22, 2024

PETA’s mobile billboard circulated throughout campus during New Husky Welcome Day, blasting the story of Dorothy, a monkey who withered away in experimenter Elizabeth Buffalo’s laboratory before experimenters killed her. Meanwhile, Northwest Animal Rights Network (NARN) advocates protested outside the university’s Alaska Airlines Arena during the New Student Convocation ceremony.

Game-Day Ad in Campus Newspaper Tackles Primate Center’s Workplace Dangers

September 14, 2024

PETA appealed to Washington National Primate Research Center employees in a special game-day supplement to the University of Washington’s newspaper. The full-page ad, featured in an edition of the Game Daily highlighting the 2024 Apple Cup, encouraged staff to speak up if they had been scratched or bitten or had shown disease symptoms and were concerned about workplace safety. Meanwhile, monkey defenders with the Northwest Animal Rights Network (NARN) protested outside the popular football game at Lumen Field in Seattle.

Electrifying Highway Display in Seattle Illuminates Atrocities at Primate Prison

August 30, 2024

Activists with PETA and the Northwest Animal Rights Network illuminated the violence against monkeys at the University of Washington with a light-up banner on Interstate 5 in Seattle that read, “UW Kills Monkeys.” The dazzling display went up a day after PETA learned that the university had decided it would euthanize a monkey who had reportedly been irradiated nearly to death by experimenter Fritzie Arce-McShane. Arce-McShane is alleged to have repeatedly violated her approved protocol and deceived veterinary staff. The decision follows PETA’s request to the university to stop the study. Arce-McShane’s experiments have currently been halted.

Mental Health or Mental Hell? Monkey Advocates Blast Psychology Conference Speaker for Enabling Abuse

August 8, 2024

Joined by PETA’s massive “monkey,” animal allies distributed leaflets exposing the horrors of the Washington National Primate Research Center to attendees of the American Psychological Association Convention at the Seattle Convention Center. Their activism coincided with the keynote address of University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce, whose administration has allowed hundreds of monkeys to suffer in the primate center’s windowless labs.

Workers Allege Fears of Reporting Animal Welfare Violations at Primate Center; PETA Files Complaint With Feds

July 2, 2024

PETA is urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate the Washington National Primate Research Center after a whistleblower revealed that staff are afraid to report violations of animal welfare laws to University of Washington leadership. Records uncovered by PETA reveal a toxic and fearful culture at the primate center that jeopardizes the health and safety of monkeys and further undermines the validity of any data from experiments conducted on them.

Primate center staff didn’t report that a monkey suffered a seizure, lost control of the left side of her body, and endured tremors for weeks following a botched brain surgery. Experimenters then reportedly performed a second surgery on her, which she never recovered from. She died from a hemorrhagic brain clot. Staff also failed to disclose the traumatic history of a group of elderly monkeys who were trucked nearly 3,000 miles to the facility. The monkeys had numerous age-related diseases, and one was euthanized after arriving, due to extremely poor health.

PETA Uncovers 255 Worker Safety Violations at Primate Center, Pushes Feds to Investigate

June 12, 2024

PETA is urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate after uncovering documentation that hundreds of worker safety violations occurred at the Washington National Primate Research Center and its breeding facility in Mesa, Arizona. Of the 255 violations, 75 may have also violated the federal Animal Welfare Act but were apparently never reported to authorities as required. Read about the stunning violations here.

Sacked! Michele Basso Ousted as Head of Primate Center After Pressure From PETA

June 12, 2024

Good riddance! Following months of pressure from PETA, the director of the Washington National Primate Research Center, Michele Basso, has been ousted from her position at the helm of the dreadful monkey prison. The move comes after PETA hand-delivered a letter to the university’s Board of Regents in March, urging it to dismiss Basso in light of her grisly track record of failure at the University of Washington and other institutions across the country.

As Commencement Crowds Gather, Activists Expose University’s Pit of Primate Despair

June 8, 2024

Joined by larger-than-life “monkey” Dorothy, activists with the Northwest Animal Rights Network pulled back the curtain on the University of Washington’s underground primate prison for thousands of attendees of the university’s main commencement ceremony, exposing the cruelty hidden only steps away from their celebration.

Death, Disease, and Depleted Forests: PETA’s Ad for Grads Spotlights System of Monkey Misery

June 6, 2024

PETA blasted the failing, disease-ridden Washington National Primate Research Center with an arresting ad in the graduation edition of the University of Washington’s campus newspaper. The ad highlighted the center’s bloody, pockmarked history of inflicting suffering on monkeys, violating the law, and threatening public health while repeatedly failing to produce treatments and cures for humans.

Dorms, Dining Halls, and Dorothy: Massive ‘Monkey’ Exposes the Parts of Campus That Tours Don’t Show

May 20–22, 2024

Dorothy, one of PETA’s iconic “monkeys,” joined prospective students and their families on student-led campus tours at the University of Washington, exposing the misery inflicted on monkeys at the school’s secretive Washington National Primate Research Center. Informational leaflets and posters encouraging whistleblowers to come forward appeared across the university’s campuses in Seattle and Bothell, Washington, and at other university-supported facilities in downtown Seattle that imprison thousands of animals for experiments.

PETA Demands Investigation After Monkey, Gasping for Breath, Dies en Route to University of Washington

May 15, 2024

PETA sent a letter urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate the September 2023 death of an apparently healthy 3-year-old pig-tailed macaque during a 30-hour trip on a JKL Secure Freight truck from the University of Washington’s primate-breeding facility in Mesa, Arizona, to its Washington National Primate Research Center in Seattle. According to a whistleblower, engine failure and a tire blowout delayed the truck for hours, leaving monkeys to bake in sweltering heat without air conditioning. Primate center veterinarians failed to identify the monkey’s cause of death, although plant material was found in her lungs and her body showed signs of dehydration.

PETA’s Spring-Cleaning Call to UW: Shut Down the Primate Prison and Sack Its Director

March 25, 2024

PETA’s massive inflatable crying monkey and a crowd of protesters demanding the closure of the University of Washington’s (UW) subterranean primate prison greeted students returning to campus for the first day of the spring quarter. Meanwhile, PETA’s “monkey” mascot Dorothy delivered a letter to UW’s Board of Regents calling for the dismissal of primate center director Michele Basso, whose résumé includes decades of failure and bumbling incompetence at institutions across the country.

PETA Sends Rolling Reminder of UW Experimenter’s Cruelty to Her Lecture

February 6, 2024

PETA sent a mobile billboard to greet attendees of University of Washington experimenter Elizabeth Buffalo’s talk at the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at the University of California–Irvine. Broadcasting the story of Dorothy, a rhesus macaque who spent her final years suffering in Buffalo’s laboratory, PETA’s rolling reminder circled the campus as Buffalo described the results of worthless experiments she conducts on tormented monkeys. Her regimen of cruelty involves depriving them of water, then strapping the thirsty animals into restraint chairs for hours at a time and forcing them to perform memory tasks in exchange for a sip of juice.

PETA Supporters Speak Up Against Decades of Cruel, Failed HIV Experiments

January 23, 2024

PETA supporters distributed leaflets to attendees of the Emerging Cellular Therapies conference at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, an event co-organized by WaNPRC monkey tormentor Hans-Peter Kiem. Kiem and his fellow purveyors of misery at the primate center have sickened and killed hundreds of monkeys in experiments purportedly intended to produce a vaccine for HIV, even though monkeys can’t contract the virus. Decades of these experiments have failed.

PETA ‘Primates’ Push for Primate Center Closure at UW Board of Regents Meeting

January 11, 2024

Wearing giant macaque monkey masks and holding signs that read, “UW: Stop Experimenting on Endangered Monkeys!” PETA supporters were present at the University of Washington Board of Regents meeting to urge the school to close its failing WaNPRC. PETA primatologist Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel gave pointed comments to the board, calling on the university to act now or “run the very real risk of being relegated as an institution mired in outdated science.”

UW Flaunts Rock-Bottom Morals With Offers of Rock-Bottom Prices on Sick Monkeys

December 6, 2023

Bargain-hunting animal torturers, look no further: The Washington National Primate Research Center has a deal for you! PETA obtained public records revealing that this federally funded primate prison on the University of Washington campus—which already sells the public a bill of goods regarding its treatment of animals—offloads its unwanted monkeys like defective merchandise, offering them to experimenters for bargain-basement prices. The animals on the center’s discount rack include monkeys infected with Valley fever, ones who have survived experimentation or repeated breeding, and some who have been shuffled from other national primate research centers.

As Football Fans Converge for Apple Cup, Dorothy the ‘Monkey’ Tackles Primate Experimentation

November 25, 2023

Accompanied by activists from the Northwest Animal Rights Network and PETA, Dorothy the “monkey” greeted thousands of football fans arriving at the University of Washington’s Husky Stadium for the Apple Cup, urging them to speak up for monkeys imprisoned in the school’s infamous primate center. Dorothy’s message of monkey liberation reached still more fans via an evocative full-page ad published in the school’s Game Daily newspaper and via a mobile billboard circling its campus.

Credit: Northwest Animal Rights Network

PETA’s Mobile Billboard Shows Students the Ugly Reality for Monkeys in UW Laboratories

September 27, 2023

PETA’s mobile billboard cruised through the streets of the University of Washington campus, greeting arriving students on the first day of classes with a video showing influencer Emily Austin transforming into a monkey and calling on university officials to shut down the Washington National Primate Research Center.

Snapshot of Suffering: Instagram-Ready Dorothy the ‘Monkey’ Puts WaNPRC Misery Into Focus

September 22, 2023

Accompanied by activists from Northwest Animal Rights Network, PETA’s “monkey” mascot Dorothy posed for photos with students streaming through Red Square during the University of Washington’s annual Late Night Carnival. Dorothy’s Instagram frame pointed curious attendees to more information about the university’s on-campus primate prison, the Washington National Primate Research Center, where her real-life namesake languished alone in a cramped cage until her death.

PETA Demands Investigation After Catastrophic Lung Injury Reportedly Leads to Monkey’s Death

August 7, 2023

PETA is urging the Washington state Veterinary Board of Governors to investigate the circumstances that reportedly led to the gruesome death of a monkey during a botched procedure at the Washington National Primate Research Center at the University of Washington (UW).

According to the university’s highest-ranking veterinarian (see this video, beginning at 11:08), the monkey began to show signs of difficulty breathing after being sedated for the procedure. They reported there was no emergency equipment in the procedure room and apparently no veterinarian immediately available, so a tech scrambled to another floor to get a portable anesthesia machine. Even though the machine was faulty, the monkey was apparently hooked up to it anyway and sustained a traumatic pressure injury to his lungs. According to the vet, he went into cardiac arrest and died.

Read more about the grisly deaths of animals due to negligence in UW laboratories.

Protesters Urge UW to Dump Primate Experimentation With Buckets of ‘Dead Monkeys’ at Commencement

June 10, 2023

Four giant buckets filled with “dead monkeys,” along with PETA supporters and activists from the Northwest Animal Rights Network, greeted University of Washington (UW) graduates and their families as they streamed into Husky Stadium for the school’s main commencement ceremony. The gruesome sight served as a sobering memorial to the hundreds of monkeys—many of them members of species listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature—whom experimenters at UW’s primate center kill each academic year.

Speak-Out in Spokane: Troop of PETA ‘Primates’ Protests at UW Alumni Event

May 9, 2023

Chants of “Stop the torture, stop the pain! UW is to blame!” filtered through the glass facade of the University of Washington’s health sciences center in Spokane as activists wearing monkey masks rallied outside to protest against the university’s continued experimentation on primates. UW alumni inside the building struggled to tear their eyes away from the spirited demonstration, which coincided with a special event there during which UW President Ana Mari Cauce spoke.

PETA’s ‘Without Consent’ Exhibit Exposes Violent History of Animal Experiments at UW and Elsewhere

April 17–21, 2023

Hundreds of students crisscrossing the University of Washington’s (UW) Red Square paused to take in PETA’s “Without Consent” exhibit, a solemn memorial to the unwilling victims of a century of animal experimentation in U.S. laboratories. The display features nearly 200 true stories of painful and deadly animal experiments in laboratories at UW and across the U.S. from the 1920s through today. Check out the virtual version.

As Springtime Blooms at UW, ‘Dorothy’ Cultivates Compassion for Fellow Macaques

April 16, 2023

Every spring, blooming Japanese cherry trees turn the University of Washington’s (UW) campus a brilliant pastel—but for monkeys at the school’s primate center, the season is just another one spent locked in a desolate, fluorescent-lit prison. Dorothy the “rhesus macaque” and activists with the Northwest Animal Rights Network took to the campus to shine a light on these primates’ plight and urge passersby to speak out against UW’s torment of monkeys in worthless experiments.

With Popcorn and a Protest, Activists Urge UW to Find a Kernel of Kindness for Primates

February 15–18, 2023

Activists with PETA and the Northwest Animal Rights Network buttered up spectators of basketball games at the University of Washington’s (UW) Alaska Airlines Arena with cups of free popcorn sporting PETA’s pro-primate redesign of the university’s logo. Each cup contained a leaflet inviting snackers to pop on over to PETA.org to learn more and take action for captives of the school’s underground primate prison. Monkey defenders continued to turn up the heat on UW with a sizzling protest at Saturday night’s game and a profusion of posters and lawn signs across campus.

Victory! Court Rules That Inept Animal Oversight Committee Members at UW Have No Right to Anonymity

February 17, 2023

The University of Washington’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) has consistently failed the animals it’s charged with protecting, leading to their deaths from starvation, dehydration, strangulation, scalding, blood loss, and more. PETA believes that the IACUC’s failure to protect animals in publicly funded laboratories is the business of every taxpayer—and now, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has affirmed our call for transparency. In a historic, precedent-setting victory for accountability in animal experimentation, the court ruled that members of the IACUC have no right under the U.S. Constitution to keep their identities secret. Read more.

Following PETA’s Complaint, Feds Fine University of Washington

December 19, 2022

Following PETA’s complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the agency has fined the University of Washington (UW) for serious violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act—some that occurred at its Washington National Primate Research Center, including its disease-ridden facility in Mesa, Arizona. Here’s the shameful list of violations:

• Allowing a monkey to suffocate to death on an improperly installed “enrichment device”
• Failing to fast a monkey before an experimental surgery, causing the animal to vomit during cardiac arrest and then die
• Allowing monkeys to escape from their enclosures, one of whom was injured so badly that her arm had to be amputated
• Allowing a monkey to escape and then failing to notice that she was missing
• Allowing two escaped monkeys to injure several other stressed monkeys

It’s clear that while it carries out useless experiments on monkeys on the taxpayers’ dime, UW can’t or won’t abide by even minimum animal protection laws.

For these atrocities, the USDA fined the school the paltry sum of $3,750. This anemic response isn’t enough to protect monkeys imprisoned at UW. The feds need to shut down its miserable primate center immediately, before staff error and negligence kill another monkey.

WaNPRC Misery on Full Display as PETA Mobile Billboard Rolls Through San Diego for Neuroscience Conference

November 14, 2022

As thousands of attendees, many of them monkey experimenters, streamed into the San Diego Convention Center for the Society for Neuroscience’s annual meeting, PETA’s mobile billboard circled the building, blasting video of the vivisectors’ atrocities for the world to see. The misery on display included disturbing footage from the Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC), where frustrated monkeys turn in endless circles in refrigerator-size cages, as well as a heart-wrenching account of the story of Dorothy, a monkey who withered away and died at the WaNPRC. Meanwhile, activists distributed leaflets underscoring the pointless suffering that thousands of monkeys like Dorothy endure in excruciating and deadly brain experiments every year.

Campus or Crime Scene? ‘Blood’-Streaked ‘Dead Monkeys’ Haunt UW in Protest of Primate Center Carnage

October 14, 2022

Mutilation, strangulation, starvation, and choking on their own vomit—it sounds like a serial killer’s bucket list, but it encompasses only some of the gruesome ways in which more than 9,000 monkeys have died at the Washington National Primate Research Center. Surrounded by chalk outlines and covered with “blood,” “monkey corpses” littered the ground in front of the Husky Union Building, where students, families, and alumni on their way to hear President Ana Mari Cauce’s homecoming week keynote address were stunned to learn about the real-life carnage that had inspired the sobering spectacle.

Costly Consequences: Judge Orders UW to Pay PETA $540,000 for Concealing Public Records

October 14, 2022

UW tried to hide grisly details about what happens at its sordid monkey-“research” facility, and now it’s paying the price—$539,902.45, to be exact. That’s how much the King County Superior Court awarded PETA in fees and penalties after finding that the university improperly withheld—and in some cases brazenly destroyed—public records detailing financial and leadership crises as well as monkey deaths at its Washington National Primate Research Center.

Sen. Cory Booker Demands Investigation Into Continued Funding of ‘Deeply Troubled’ UW Primate Center

October 11, 2022

Drop $13 million into a paper shredder and you might at least get some expensive artificial grass, but drop it into the Washington National Primate Research Center and you won’t get even that—just zero cures and a mountain of diseased and dying monkeys. Following the news that the National Institutes of Health had renewed the center’s $13 million base grant for yet another year, Sen. Cory Booker penned a powerful letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra demanding an investigation into why the notoriously cruel and incompetent facility is still receiving federal funding.

Shrieking ‘Monkeys,’ Rolling Billboard Make Splash on Rain-Soaked First Day of Classes

September 28, 2022

Students trekking between the Quad and Red Square on their first day of fall semester stopped in their tracks to gawk at a shrieking transport crate of “monkeys” and a massive banner demanding the closure of UW’s Washington National Primate Research Center. Accompanied by “rhesus macaque” Dorothy, a troop of human primates from PETA and the Northwest Animal Rights Network shared information about the gruesome fates that monkeys endure at the abysmal facility. Elsewhere on campus, PETA’s mobile billboard blasted video footage of monkeys imprisoned and tormented in UW laboratories to other curious students and faculty streaming by.

Moonlit Misery: Activists Shine a Light on Monkeys’ Plight With Nighttime Projection at UW

September 26, 2022

Although UW has repeatedly refused to heed the calls of concerned citizens to close down its grisly primate center, Seattle’s monkey defenders are refusing to let their activism hit a wall—except with the light from their projector. Clever activists took advantage of the dark sky and the side of a UW building to share information about monkeys like Dorothy, who spent her final years frail and sick in a desolate cage at the Washington National Primate Research Center.

Screaming ‘Special Delivery’ Haunts Convocation Attendees Outside Alaska Airlines Arena

September 25, 2022

A wooden shipping crate of shrieking “monkeys” turned heads in front of UW’s Alaska Airlines Arena as first-year students and their families piled into the building for New Student Convocation. Concerned attendees were disturbed to learn from activists with PETA and the Northwest Animal Rights Network that among UW’s primate victims are endangered macaques who have been hauled halfway around the globe to be tormented in painful and deadly experiments.

Ad: ‘Monorail Monkeys’ Pressure UW to Put the Brakes on Cruelty

August 16, 2022

Late summer sightseers aboard the Seattle Center Monorail are getting an eyeful of more than just the Space Needle. Following recent news that animal experimentation is largely to blame for two species of macaques’ new endangered status, 10 displays at Seattle Center station are blasting a can’t-be-missed message: Experiments on primates—including those conducted at the Washington National Primate Research Center—must end.

‘Boundless Misery’: Activist Floods UW Campus With Scathingly Reimagined Logo

July 31, 2022

While UW trumpets its slogan to “be boundless,” the university churns out boundless misery for monkeys imprisoned at its Washington National Primate Research Center. PETA’s straight-shooting take on the UW logo, which an activist has spread all over campus, injects some much-needed reality into the university’s out-of-touch advertising.

Massive ‘Spider,’ Dead ‘Monkeys’ Expose UW’s Dirty Secret in Commencement-Weekend Blitz

June 10 and 11, 2022

The University of Washington may prefer to hide the grisly reality of its torture of monkeys in a dusty, cobwebbed corner, but PETA is bringing the school’s web of lies out into the open—and right into the middle of Red Square. Thousands of visitors crisscrossing the plaza came face to face with our enormous “spider” as a weekend of graduation festivities kicked off across campus. Flanked by mounds of dead “monkeys,” PETA’s “primate” mascot returned the next day to spread the word to even more students, families, and friends pouring into Husky Stadium for commencement ceremonies.

Broken Promises, Wasted Resources, and a Mountain of Dead Monkeys: Flyposters Slam UW’s Failed Primate Research Center

April 21, 2022

The U.S. government has poured billions of taxpayer dollars into the national primate research centers since the 1960s. In that time, the facilities have produced an ever-growing mountain of dead monkeys—more than 9,000 at the Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) alone—but none of the promised vaccines for HIV, tuberculosis, or malaria. Plastered on walls, windows, and doorways around the University of Washington’s campus, PETA’s flyposters offer a sobering visual reminder of the WaNPRC’s grisly legacy of suffering and death.

Activists Skewer UW for Destroying Public Records, Sweeping Suffering Under the Rug

February 23, 2022

With a spirited protest during an animal testing and security conference in Seattle, PETA and the Northwest Animal Rights Network put the Washington National Primate Research Center on blast for destroying public records that reveal the disturbing extent of its hideous abuse of monkeys.

Never Be Sidelined, Never Be Silent: ‘Monkey’ Hits the Basketball Arena to Advocate for Fellow Primates Imprisoned at UW

February 12, 2022

Turning the heads of basketball fans packing into the University of Washington’s Alaska Airlines Arena, PETA’s larger-than-life “rhesus macaque” Dorothy urged the university to score a slam dunk for animals by closing its abysmal primate research center.

Mobile Billboard Blasting Gut-Wrenching Monkey Footage Wheels Through Seattle Streets

January 31, 2022

The Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) may want to keep the public in the dark about the grim reality inside its primate prison, but PETA is driving the truth out of the shadows—literally. Our mobile billboard circled the University of Washington campus to shed light on the WaNPRC’s grisly experiments.

PETA’s Roving ‘Monkey’ Mascot Rides the Rails Through Seattle

December 16, 2021

Dorothy the “monkey” hopped aboard Seattle’s Link light rail and rode through the city to spread the word about the University of Washington’s hideously cruel primate center, where her real-life namesake and thousands of others like her have been imprisoned, mutilated, and killed in painful experiments.

Bold Colors, Bolder Message: Provocative Street Art Blitz Targets Washington National Primate Research Center

November 24, 2021

Plastered throughout Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, impossible-to-miss artwork by the street artist Praxis vividly depicts the terror of monkeys ripped away from their families to be exploited in painful and deadly experiments at the national primate research centers, including the Washington state facility.

Ad: For Monkeys at UW, the Terror of Being Probed by ‘Aliens’ Is All Too Real

November 10, 2021

Imagine that you’ve just been beamed up into a UFO, strapped onto a hard operating table, and slashed open by strange, menacing beings who won’t release you no matter how much you struggle. Sound horrifying? Scrap the part about the UFO and we’ve nearly described the experience of thousands of monkeys trapped at the Washington National Primate Research Center. PETA’s storefront ad near the state capitol in Olympia, Washington, hammers home the point to legislators and other passersby.

Ad Blasting UW’s Disgraced Monkey-Breeding Operation Makes a Splash in UW Student Paper

October 28, 2021

Toxic water, dead monkeys, and dirty science: That’s all the University of Washington (UW) has to show for the years that it’s spent breeding monkeys at its Mesa, Arizona, facility, located next to a toxic waste site. UW staff and students browsing The Daily, UW’s student paper, for the latest on-campus news spotted PETA’s full-page ad demanding that the university shut down its shameful operation and release the monkeys there to reputable sanctuaries.

Arizona Republic Shreds UW Monkey Labs and Breeding Mill in Sizzling Four-Part Exposé

October 5, 2021

PETA worked for two years to uncover the appalling truth: Deadly pathogens run rampant at UW’s supposedly pathogen-free pig-tailed macaque breeding facility in Mesa, Arizona. Now, after working with us, The Arizona Republic revealed this and more in its shocking 10,000-word exposé of UW’s primate prisons in Arizona and Washington state. The series also exposes that runoff from a nearby toxic waste site contaminates the breeding facility’s water supply with dangerous compounds like perchlorates, which can disrupt hormone production and harm the delicate developing brains of baby monkeys. Even though sick monkeys produce unreliable experimental results, the facility ships some of the animals to UW’s Washington laboratories to be tormented in deadly tests. Get the dirt here.

PETA Urges UW to Start Fresh, End Monkey Tests at First-Day-of-School Demonstration

September 29, 2021

It may be just the beginning of the fall semester, but UW’s primate torture chamber has already earned the school an F. Accompanied by Dorothy the vivisected “monkey,” nearly two dozen activists descended on UW’s bustling Red Square to demand the closure of its wretched primate center. Students were shocked and horrified to learn of the despicable cruelty occurring right under their noses.

Dorothy the ‘Monkey’ Drops By Board of Regents’ Office to Demand Closure of UW’s Primate Prison

September 16, 2021

Monkeys trapped in UW’s secretive underground laboratory can’t pay a visit to university administrators to demand their freedom—but Dorothy can. The plucky “primate” stopped by the Office of the Board of Regents to urge board members to shut down the school’s shameful monkey torture chamber.

Larger-Than-Life ‘Monkey’ Turns Heads on UW Campus

August 18, 2021

Prospective students touring UW’s tree-lined campus were greeted by the unexpected sight of PETA’s giant “monkey” mascot, Dorothy, whose real-life namesake, like thousands of others, was imprisoned for years in UW’s secretive primate center while her body and spirit deteriorated. Dorothy the mascot was accompanied on her first public outing by activists from the Northwest Animal Rights Network, who handed out informative literature to curious passersby.

Monkey Defenders Plaster Posters Across UW Dean’s Neighborhood

August 6, 2021

Activists bedecked trees and signposts in UW School of Pharmacy Dean Sean Sullivan’s neighborhood with a message in behalf of monkeys imprisoned, cut open, restrained, tormented, and killed at the WaNPRC.

Video: UW, Monkeys Belong in Nature, Not a Laboratory

July 19, 2021

This video says it all: While their free counterparts in nature spend their days grooming one another, devouring delicious fruits and seeds, and exploring new territories, stressed and frustrated rhesus macaques at the University of Washington turn in endless circles, desperately shake the bars of their cages, and even rip out their own hair.

USDA Rejects UW’s Attempt to Cover Up Dangerous Monkey-Escape Violations

July 9, 2021

Stating that the school’s long and sordid history of offenses was “not indicative of a facility that is demonstrating success at preventing critical animal welfare issues,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rejected UW’s brazen 54-page appeal to get recent citations for critical violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act erased. Among these was a citation for an incident in which WaNPRC staff failed to notice that a pigtail macaque went missing for up to two days—she was found dehydrated, having had no access to food or water. PETA had uncovered this violation in documents obtained through an open records request and filed a complaint with the USDA about it in September 2020.

With a Protest and Papier-Mâché, Activists Send UW a Graduation Day Message for Monkeys

June 12, 2021

Carting a larger-than-life monkey statue bearing the signatures of more than 236,000 concerned PETA supporters, protesters descended on UW’s Red Square on the day of the school’s virtual graduation ceremony to urge the university to close its pit of primate despair. After spreading their message to the hundreds of graduates and their families snapping photos around campus, the activists and their papier-mâché primate headed to the home of UW Dean Sean Sullivan to continue the peaceful demonstration.

Former WaNPRC Employee: ‘Monkeys Are Not the Pathway to Human Health’

June 6, 2021

Calling on the University of Washington to follow the lead of Harvard University and shut down its failing primate center, primatologist Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel explains in the The Seattle Times why she felt compelled to leave her position at the Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) to advocate for the monkeys whose suffering she had witnessed firsthand. “I have looked into the eyes of the monkeys, and I have seen what it does to their bodies to be confined for years to a metal cage that is no bigger than a kitchen cabinet,” she writes, noting that monkeys at the WaNPRC have died from strangulation, dehydration, choking on their own vomit, and more.

‘The Sopranos’ Star Edie Falco Slams the WaNPRC in Straight-Shooting Radio Ad

May 31, 2021

Seattleites tuning in to KOMO NewsRadio got a news flash from The Sopranos and Nurse Jackie star Edie Falco about the University of Washington’s secret underground monkey-torture chamber. “Monkeys continue to die … [a]nd you are paying for it,” says Falco, urging listeners to take action to shut down the wretched facility, which has racked up multiple violations of federal animal welfare laws during its six decades of operation.

R.I.P.: PETA’s Graveyard Memorializes 9,000 Monkeys Who Suffered and Died at the WaNPRC

April 8, 2021

PETA’s somber display of 90 tombstones—each one representing 100 of the 9,000 monkeys killed at the Washington National Primate Research Center over the last 60 years—blanketed the hill concealing the barren underground facility where monkeys trapped inside cramped cages pace endlessly, bite at their own limbs, and tear out their own hair in distress.

PETA Calls On UW to Retract ‘Knowingly False’ Statement Taking Credit for Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine

February 25, 2021

After PETA told federal officials that the chair of the University of Washington’s (UW) Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) had made the dishonest claim that a Washington National Primate Research Center experimenter’s tests on pigtail macaques were directly responsible for the development of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Research Integrity contacted the university about the statement, which it called “knowingly false.” In an e-mail obtained by PETA, the agency told UW that while this did not constitute research fraud, UW could take “any administrative actions” internally. PETA is calling on UW to retract the statement publicly and to remove any individuals involved from their positions.

Monkeys Die From Choking and Heart Attack at University of Washington

February 16, 2021

It’s tough to imagine that the Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) at the University of Washington (UW) could top its record for appalling deaths: Monkeys there have died of strangulation, starvation, dehydration, and veterinary error.

PETA has just learned that experimenter Chuck Murry removed an elderly 15-year-old monkey from the breeding colony and stuck her in his laboratory. Her reward for years of giving birth and watching her babies be taken from her one by one? Murry induced a heart attack in her. Days later, she was dead.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by this abuse. A federal report obtained by PETA reveals that arrogance and impatience apparently led to the death of a monkey who had been used in an experimental surgery. He hadn’t been fasted the night before, as he should have been, and rather than following standard operating procedures, Murry refused to wait or reschedule. The monkey went into respiratory arrest, vomited undigested food while a tube was thrust down his throat and he was given CPR, went into respiratory arrest again, and then died.

In 2020, Murry—now a “Core Staff Scientist” at the WaNPRC—received more than $3.1 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to cause heart attacks in young and elderly monkeys. The WaNPRC has repeatedly demonstrated that it can’t—or won’t—comply with legally required minimum animal welfare standards. It’s time for NIH to take definitive action and stop wasting taxpayer dollars by funding the abuse, neglect, and killing of monkeys in worthless experiments at the WaNPRC. 

We are demanding that UW shut down its primate center and end its horrific animal tests. Take action now.

Seattle Billboard Urges UW to End Monkey Experiments, Embrace Better Research

January 26, 2021

PETA’s eye-catching billboard in Seattle—featuring the University of Washington’s colors and the wistful face of a monkey peering out from behind cage bars—urges the university to stop its tests on primates and switch to a better way of conducting research.

Caged ‘Monkeys’ Call For Closure of UW’s Cruel Primate Center

January 14, 2021

Donning lifelike monkey masks, more than two dozen protesters—some of them confined to cramped, barren cages much like those in which monkeys at the WaNPRC spend their entire lives—chanted and held signs demanding the closure of UW’s underground primate laboratory. Just steps away from the protest, the more than 1,000 monkeys currently at the WaNPRC continue to be ripped away from their mothers, restrained for hours at a time, subjected to full-body irradiation, and more in painful experiments that don’t help humans.

Activists Pepper University of Washington Campus With Posters for Monkeys

January 7, 2021

Monkeys at UW’s primate center have died from strangulation, choking on their own vomit, being mauled by other stressed animals, and more, as pointed out on PETA’s poster, which popped up at various locations on UW’s campus.

Monkey-Masked Activists Bring Home PETA’s Call to Close the WaNPRC With Protest Outside UW Officials’ Houses

December 17, 2020

They say home is where the heart is—and activists wearing monkey masks urged the UW dean and the WaNPRC interim director to find theirs and close the cruel primate center, with a peaceful, silent, socially distanced protest at both of their homes. Monkeys at the WaNPRC spend their days and nights in barren metal cages, far away from their natural home in lush forests, grassy savannahs, or high mountains.

PETA’s Mobile Billboard Takes the Campaign to Close UW’s Primate Center to the Streets

November 27, 2020

PETA’s mobile billboard urging the University of Washington to shut down its cruel and archaic primate research center wheeled down Seattle streets and through busy strip mall parking lots on Black Friday.

With Gas Topper Ads, PETA Calls On UW to Stop Fueling Its Cruel Primate Research Center

November 20, 2020

PETA’s gas topper ads are spreading the word to drivers filling up their tanks: It’s time for the University of Washington to cut the gas to its cruel primate research center! The center’s barbaric experiments are fueled by millions of dollars of wasted taxpayer funds.

PETA Slams ‘Six Decades of Scientific Failure’ and Cruelty at the WaNPRC in Full-Page Ad

November 18, 2020

If the hundreds of monkeys used in grisly, money-wasting experiments every year at the Washington National Primate Research Center could speak English, they’d tell the University of Washington (UW) to “cut funding, not our skulls”—and PETA’s ad in the school’s student publication The Daily does just that. It urges UW to refocus its resources on human-relevant, 21^st century science instead of barbaric and useless monkey experiments.

PETA Scientist Shares Why She Left the WaNPRC and Joined PETA’s Fight to End Primate Experimentation on The PETA Podcast

November 18, 2020

After spending 14 years working with primates at the Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC), Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel found that she couldn’t continue in good conscience. In an episode of The PETA Podcast, she describes some of the transformative experiences that led her to become a senior scientist at PETA, where she now advocates for the closure of the WaNPRC and the six other national primate research centers.

PETA Unfurls Massive Banner Calling For Shutdown of University of Washington’s Primate Center

November 12, 2020

PETA’s bold 30-foot-long banner urging the University of Washington to shut down its cruel primate center grabbed the attention of passing motorists from overpasses in Seattle. The banner featured the face of a monkey just like the tens of thousands who have been imprisoned and tormented in cruel experiments at the facility.

Footage Reveals ‘Dread, Despair, and Disease’ for Monkeys at Washington National Primate Research Center

November 12, 2020

Obtained via a public records request, never-before-seen footage released by PETA shows profoundly distressed monkeys pacing endlessly inside barren steel cages in dark and mostly underground rooms on the University of Washington’s campus and in a concrete building in downtown Seattle. Nearly 60 years of experiments on monkeys at the Washington National Primate Research Center on the UW campus have failed to produce any significant medical advances.

PETA Denounces Failing, Archaic, Disease-Ridden WaNPRC in Seattle Times Ad

November 7, 2020

In an arresting full-page ad in The Seattle Times, PETA exposes failures at the University of Washington’s primate center: “Public records show that the primate center is deep in debt, is hemorrhaging scientists and other staff, and, by its own admission, is unable to keep the monkeys healthy … Monkeys have died from strangulation, starvation, dehydration, choking on their own vomit, bleeding to death, and being mauled by other stressed animals.”

PETA Files Complaint With Feds Alleging Violations of Federal Animal Welfare Laws, Conflicts of Interest

September 2, 2020

PETA has submitted a formal complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture after uncovering evidence of Animal Welfare Act violations at the University of Washington’s primate center. It also alleges serious conflicts of interest on the university’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, which is responsible for ensuring compliance with all animal protection laws in the institution’s laboratories. Read more.

PETA Exposes Incompetence and Negligence at the WaNPRC

June 25, 2020

In just the latest example of incompetence and negligence at the WaNPRC, a monkey imprisoned at the facility was somehow left locked in a trapping run. Two staff members noticed that the animal was missing but didn’t bother reporting the incident. The monkey went without food and water for as long as two days. Read more.

PETA Demands That the WaNPRC Be Transparent About COVID-19 in Workers and Monkeys

March 31, 2020

Humans aren’t the only primates who can be infected with the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. That’s why PETA is calling on the WaNPRC to suspend all experiments and to provide documentation that the 1,200 monkeys housed there, as well as its staff, have not been exposed to or infected with the virus. Because the virus affects monkeys differently from humans, they are not good “models” for studying the human form of the disease—and if any of the monkeys are infected, future studies involving them would be compromised. Read more.

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What You Can Do

Text* SEATTLE to 73822 and call 206-543-5010 or 206-543-2580 to urge the University of Washington to close down the WaNPRC and transfer the animals to sanctuaries.

*U.S. only. Message and data rates may apply. Periodic messaging. Text STOP to end or HELP for info. Full terms are at PETA.vg/txt.