PETA’s Been Doing That From the Start
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From the very first investigation in 1981 until now, PETA has pioneered freeing primates from laboratories. That first investigation, the Silver Spring monkeys case, led to the first arrest and criminal conviction of an animal experimenter for cruelty to animals in the United States, the first confiscation of abused animals from a laboratory, and the first US Supreme Court victory for animals used in experiments.
PETA campaigns have led to the following, and many more, victories for monkeys in laboratories:
✓ The closure of the US government laboratory where, for 30 years, newborn monkeys were taken from their mothers and tormented in useless experiments
✓ The closure of the New England Primate Research Center at Harvard University, after PETA exposed violations of animal-protection laws and protested addicting monkeys to heroin, cocaine, and alcohol
✓ An end to head-bashing experiments on baboons at the University of Pennsylvania
✓ The cancellation of NASA’s plans to expose monkeys to radiation
✓ An end to experiments in which baby monkeys’ eyes were sewn shut at the University of California–Riverside
✓ The Dutch Parliament’s announcement of a plan to phase out the use of monkeys in experiments, after PETA Netherlands delivered 100,000 signatures to legislators
✓ A ban on transporting monkeys to laboratories by nearly every commercial airline in the world, including American Airlines, United Airlines, and Delta Air Lines, and dozens of others
✓ Multiple citations and fines for laboratories in which monkeys died when they were inadvertently put through high-pressure cage washers; strangled by devices in their cages; burned by hot pipes, heating pads, or heat lamps; subjected to malfunctioning watering and heating systems; mistakenly forced to undergo surgery; and more.
Studies have shown that monkeys will starve themselves rather than give an electric shock to another monkey they don’t even know. Yet they are deprived of everything in laboratories. Captive primates usually spend their entire lives inside cramped steel cages not much bigger than their own bodies, without bedding, trees to climb, or even companionship. Babies are taken away from their mothers to be experimented on, leaving both heartbroken.
There is no excuse for any of this cruelty – humans don’t have the right to lock up, cut open, and kill monkeys. Now, legislators are beginning to agree. US Sen. Cory Booker has introduced the Primate Protection and Research Modernization Act, which would suspend all funding for experiments on monkeys until all areas of primate use are reviewed. Since studies show that experiments on animals are ineffective and even misleading, this would sound the death knell for paralyzing and starving monkeys, inserting electrodes into their brains, keeping them thirsty to make them “cooperate,” and more.
