PETA Vice President Disrupts Harvard Event to Protest Sinister Monkey Tests

For Immediate Release:
July 31, 2024

Contact:
Tasgola Brune 202-483-7382

A PETA vice president and a cadre of primate protectors took a stand at Harvard University’s “A Celebration of Summer in Washington” event at the University Club on Wednesday, appealing to Harvard Interim President Alan Garber to end experimenter Margaret Livingstone’s cruel tests on infant monkeys. Just as Garber was being welcomed to the podium, Dr. Alka Chandna, PETA Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Cases, approached the stage, unveiled a sign that read, “Harvard: Shut Down Baby Monkey Lab Now!” and pointed out that hundreds of experts—including Dr. Jane Goodall—and Harvard’s own Animal Law and Policy Program have called for an end to the experiments but have been ignored. Security quickly surrounded her and escorted her out of the building.

Photos and video footage of the demonstration are available here.

Livingstone’s experiments involve tearing baby monkeys away from their mothers, isolating them, and distorting their vision. She’s even sewn monkeys’ eyelids shut for an entire year. Some infant monkeys are forced to wear goggles that simulate disorienting strobe lighting 12 hours a day for 18 months. Others are raised by humans wearing welding masks so that they never see a monkey or human face.

Livingstone also surgically implants electrodes in the monkeys’ brains to see how their altered brain cells respond to visual stimuli. After years of torment, she kills many of them and dissects their brains. 

More than 380 experts—including primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall—joined PETA and Harvard’s own Animal Law & Policy Clinic to urge the National Institutes of Health to stop funding Livingstone’s experiments.

“While President Garber socializes, baby monkeys are trapped in a living hell in Margaret Livingstone’s laboratory,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “Garber must listen to the scientific consensus, shut down Livingstone’s laboratory, and invest in animal-free research that actually helps humans.”

Livingstone has conducted terrifying and agonizing experiments on monkeys and other animals for 40 years and collected more than $32 million in taxpayer money to bankroll them, despite never producing a single treatment or cure for humans.

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.