UMass Monkey Experimenter Claims She “Welcomes” PETA to Lab; PETA Scientists Respond

For Immediate Release:
January 7, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner (202-483-7382

PETA today accepted what we hope, despite all evidence to the contrary, is a genuine invitation from University of Massachusetts-Amherst (UMass) experimenter Agnès Lacreuse, who recently claimed in the Daily Collegian that she would “welcome PETA representatives to see the lab”—even though PETA is having to sue the university to obtain photos, videos, and documents from her invasive experiments on tiny marmosets. PETA’s public response to the Daily Collegian story is here.

In a letter sent to Lacreuse today, PETA agreed to her offer to tour the laboratory and requested PETA’s neuroscientist and primate scientist be allowed to witness the experiments and take photos and/or videos.

Lacreuse studies menopause using marmosets even though the animals don’t undergo the condition. She restrains them with zip ties and drills into the skulls of some of the monkeys. Records obtained by PETA through open records requests show numerous instances of marmosets used in Lacreuse’s experiments escaping from their enclosures and suffering from injuries, chronic diarrhea, and other ailments. At the end of the experiments, the marmosets are killed. Lacreuse has killed sixteen marmosets since January 2023, and 13 monkeys remain in her laboratory.

A marmoset confined in the laboratory of Agnès Lacreuse at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst.
Image obtained by PETA through an open records request.

“UMass has blocked PETA’s efforts to obtain public documents detailing what is happening to the marmosets used in Lacreuse’s deadly experiments,” says PETA neuroscientist Dr. Katherine Roe. “If her offer is genuine, we are standing by to arrange a date.”

PETA recently urged federal officials to investigate whether Lacreuse misused taxpayer money after she spent approximately $340,000 on a sleep deprivation experiment at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center.

In nature, marmosets live in cooperative groups high up in the canopies of rainforests, where they groom each other, huddle affectionately, share food and care for their young.

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 PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.