Giant PETA ‘Monkey’ to Haunt UW Dawg Dash Over Animal Experimentation
For Immediate Release:
October 11, 2024
Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382
A PETA supporter dressed as Dorothy—an elderly, sick monkey who was kept thirsty and subjected to experiments at the Washington National Primate Research Center—is registered to race in the University of Washington’s annual Alaska Airlines Dawg Dash on Sunday to notify runners about the school’s cruel and pointless animal testing program.
Experimenters deprived Dorothy of water in order to coerce her to cooperate in tests in which she was restrained and her head was held still. She became sicker and sicker and was finally euthanized—and it was then discovered that she was riddled with cancer. Since 2022, a person in a Dorothy costume has been confronting UW leadership about the cruelty and waste of the university’s experiments on diseased, distressed, and caged monkeys kept in an underground facility.
“The primate center is a steady source of multiple violations of animal protection laws, unintended diseases, and dead monkeys,” says PETA primate scientist Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel. “University leadership—including the new president, when that person is selected—must understand that UW will never be a top research institution until it embraces human-relevant research and stops tormenting monkeys.”
Where: Red Square, 4063 Spokane Ln., and the Dawg Dash starting line on Memorial Way N.E., University of Washington, Seattle
When: Sunday, October 13, 9 a.m.
Why: For more than 60 years, the Washington National Primate Research Center has wasted taxpayer funds and failed the scientific community by infecting, tormenting, and killing monkeys by the thousands and repeatedly violating the federal Animal Welfare Act. Monkeys have died from strangulation, starvation, and being mauled by other stressed monkeys. Others choked on their own vomit, had their limbs mangled, were given the wrong drugs, or died from uncontrolled diarrheal diseases.
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.
