PETA Releases First-Ever Video From Inside Washington National Primate Research Center
Activists to Hang Banner From Highway Overpasses to Call For Closure of Facility
For Immediate Release:
November 11, 2020
Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382
This morning, PETA released a video showing monkeys living alone in small metal cages, without companionship or even bedding, inside the Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) at the University of Washington (UW). The group obtained the video via an open records request to the University of Massachusetts–Amherst, where an experimenter led a study on the effects of caging monkeys at several laboratories. The video shows the public the stark living conditions for monkeys inside the federally funded research center.
In response, during the morning, lunch, and evening rush hours on Thursday, a group of PETA supporters wearing masks and practicing social distancing will unfurl a gigantic banner from busy overpasses to demand that UW shut down the WaNPRC.
When: Thursday, November 12, 7:30–9 a.m.
Where: The E. Denny Way overpass over I-5, Seattle
When: Thursday, November 12, 11:30 a.m.–1 p.m.
Where: The Husky Stadium pedestrian bridge over Montlake Boulevard N.E. and N.E. Pacific Street, Seattle
When: Thursday, November 12, 3–5 p.m.
Where: The E. Denny Way overpass over I-5, Seattle
“UW has destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of monkeys in archaic, dubious, and painful experiments that have produced no effective vaccines for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, or malaria,” says primatologist, former UW professor, and PETA science adviser Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel. “PETA is calling on UW to shut down this cruel, failed laboratory and focus its resources on human-relevant, 21st century science.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has repeatedly cited UW for violating the federal Animal Welfare Act. Monkeys have died from strangulation, dehydration, starvation, being mauled by other stressed monkeys, and veterinary mistakes. The agency is now investigating recent escapes of monkeys—another violation of the act.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
