usatoday / CC

You may remember that years back, PETA was instrumental in getting NASA out of the monkey business when we successfully pushed the agency to cancel plans to launch straightjacketed, electrode-implanted monkeys into space. So, as you can imagine, we leapt to attention when we learned recently that the mad scientists at NASA want to blast up to 28 squirrel monkeys with a massive dose of gamma rays in order to "simulate" the space radiation they would be exposed to if they were humans on a three-year mission to Mars (which they aren't, but apparently NASA isn't one to quibble over details).

The monkeys will then spend the rest of their lives being forced to perform a host of "behavioral tasks" to assess how the radiation affected their brains. Although NASA has repeatedly told the media that these monkeys won't be killed, they left out the teensy detail that earlier radiation experiments NASA has conducted on monkeys have caused the animals to suffer from fatal cancers, including brain tumors.

We asked NASA to halt these cruel and pointless experiments in a letter we sent to the agency this week. No answer yet, but in the meantime, please let NASA know how you feel about its plans to experiment on monkeys.

Posted by Alisa Mullins

What do you get when PETA teams up with Chuck D of Public Enemy and his wife, Dr. Gaye Theresa Johnson, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine; Serj Tankian of System of a Down; Fletcher Dragge of Pennywise; and every member of Anti-Flag? I'd say you get the most impressive band of musical talent ever to rage against the U.S. military's animal-abuse machine.

100xr / CC

Each of the notables listed above has signed PETA's petition calling on the Department of Defense to end the gruesome, hideously cruel abuse of animals in training exercises, which include stabbing, shooting, and burning live pigs, cutting off goats' legs,and poisoning monkeys. There are better ways to train medics that don't rely on tormenting animals.

Caring people are demanding that the U.S. military follow Bolivia's lead by banning all animal abuse in military training exercises. Join the fight by adding your name to our petition.

Posted by Karin Bennett

latina / CC

You probably know him from his roles in movies such as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Traffic, 21 Grams, Sin City (my personal favorite), and many others. He's also won an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and a SAG award. Now actor Benicio del Toro is adding one more bullet point to his résumé: animal defender.

The Puerto Rican actor has penned a letter to the governor of Puerto Rico urging him to halt the construction plans for Bioculture's massive monkey-breeding facility. As you might remember, Bioculture—a company that supplies primates to laboratories—plans to capture monkeys from their homes in Mauritius, hold them captive in Puerto Rico, and then sell thousands of their babies for use in painful and deadly experiments around the world.

You can read Benicio's full letter here. To write your own respectful letter to the governor to ask him to stop Bioculture, please click here.

Posted by Amanda Schinke

current.com / CC

Back in March, we told you about the USDA's investigation at Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC). The investigation came about as a result of a PETA complaint exposing that a monkey had been operated on by mistake; that a sick, pregnant monkey had been denied veterinary care; and that other abuses had taken place. The USDA backed up our findings, citing ONPRC for violations of the Animal Welfare Act and issuing the facility a warning. And let's not forget what we found during our undercover investigation.

Well, it's been barely seven months, and ONPRC is in hot water again. According to a lawsuit filed by InVivo Therapeutics—one of the companies that hired ONPRC to torture experiment on monkeys—ONPRC so severely neglected seven monkeys whose spinal cords it had surgically severed that four of the monkeys had to be euthanized.

Of course, the lawsuit is a lose-lose for the monkeys. InVivo had paid ONPRC to paralyze the animals so that researchers could implant them with a device developed by InVivo in order to see if they would regain any movement. In the lawsuit, InVivo alleges that early in the research period, more than one third of the monkeys provided by ONPRC suffered illnesses or injuries such as bladder problems because ONPRC failed to provide the proper post-surgery care or a medical device necessary to keep their bodily systems functioning. InVivo also alleges that at least one monkey developed "a debilitating staph infection" as a result of bacteria at ONPRC.

The publicity surrounding the case has shined another spotlight on abuses at ONPRC as well as the inadequacy of the federal law that is supposed to protect animals in laboratories.

If you have a strong stomach, go to StopAnimalTests.com to find out more about the cruel, redundant, and archaic experiments conducted on primates at ONPRC, and then dash off a letter to the National Institutes of Health, urging it to stop funneling your tax dollars to ONPRC.

Posted by Alisa Mullins

thepatrioticgentleman / CC

According to news reports out of Nepal, that country's forest minister, Dipak Bohara, has "imposed a ban on monkey breeding for export to the United States for biomedical research."

This could be an important first step toward ending the grotesque breeding-and-export trade in monkeys once and for all.

The next step is for the Nepali government to listen to the coalition of animal protection groups (including PETA India) that has been urging the government to rehabilitate the hundreds of monkeys at a breeding center in Lele and to pass a law that would halt all commercial wildlife breeding.

We hope Nepal's action also inspires officials in Puerto Rico to block plans by Bioculture to build a monkey-breeding facility there. But in case they're not paying attention to Nepali news—and, let's face it, many folks aren't—please be sure to add your voice to the growing chorus opposing the construction of Bioculture's facility.

Posted by Jeff Mackey

Beach bums everywhere agree that Puerto Rico's beaches are heavenly, but the island will become hell on earth for thousands of monkeys if a massive primate-breeding facility is approved.

PETA is taking no time off in our efforts to shoot down the proposal by Bioculture, a company that breeds and sells monkeys to foreign laboratories, where they will suffer abusive handling, months of confinement in metal cages, and forced dosings of toxic chemicals (remember Covance, anyone?). The latest efforts include working to get our new billboard erected in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

There's more to come, so stay tuned.

Posted by Karin Bennett

dawkinswatch / cc

Sharp-eyed PETA intern Elijah spotted a couple of recent news stories that show (once again) how much we have in common with our primate cousins—monkeys, in this case.

First came word that cotton-top tamarin monkeys can "acquire an affixation rule that shares important properties with our inflectional morphology." Gotta love scientific jargon, huh? Put a bit more simply, they can recognize when a word doesn't have the suffix or prefix they expect to hear. So if you're striking up a conversation with a monkey, watch your language because you're not the only one who knows what "caging" and "killing" means.

Then we learned that rhesus monkeys use the same mechanism—"configural perception" (well, natch)—as humans do to recognize faces. Turns out that monkeys also experience the "Thatcher Effect," which, yes, is named after the former British prime minister. If you don't know what the Thatcher Effect is—I didn't—here's more about it. (If you don't know who Margaret Thatcher is, I can't help you.)

So let's see. Monkeys can recognize Margaret Thatcher upside down. They know prefixes and suffixes, can speak in sentences (and with accents), and can even do math. Heck, they have a stronger skill set than some people I've worked with—although not at PETA, of course. But they're definitely overqualified to be caged and tortured in laboratories at Columbia University or Covance. What really blows my mind is how experimenters can discover all of this and still torture and kill monkeys. Maybe we should be conducting tests on experimenters' empathy instead.

Posted by Jeff Mackey

On the "even the little guy sometimes gets a break" front, we recently received news that nine monkeys had escaped from the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC). The monkeys apparently made a break for it when a laboratory worker left their outdoor cage unsecured (great idea—lab workers reading this please take note). Sadly, all the monkeys were eventually captured, but freedom tasted good while it lasted, didn't it, guys?

Perhaps those monkeys were reading The PETA Files? Just last month, we reported that ONPRC had been cited for three violations of the Animal Welfare Act and slapped with a formal warning from the USDA, which told ONPRC that if it didn't shape up, it could face civil or criminal penalties. This after PETA repeatedly brought to the USDA's attention abuses such as botched surgeries, the forced separation of infant monkeys from their mothers, and the deaths of monkeys who had been denied veterinary care. PETA also told the USDA about how monkeys at ONPRC were forced to eat food out of waste-filled trays, blasted with high-pressure hoses in their cages, and much more.

Other Viewing Options

Even though we were rooting for the escaped monkeys to catch a freight train out of there forever, we have filed yet another complaint with the USDA. We pointed out that the USDA had told ONPRC that if it screwed up again, it was going to be in serious trouble. So, USDA, please stand by your word. ONPRC has been given more than enough opportunities to clean up its act, and it has failed. If only the 4,000 monkeys who are imprisoned at ONPRC could receive as many "second chances." There is nothing good in their future, we fear.

Posted by Alisa Mullins

One of the monkeys who was abused for experiments at ONPRC

It's been awhile since we last mentioned the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC). But even though ONPRC hasn't been in our blog, it's been very much on our minds, and there are encouraging new developments to report.

For those of you who have hit-and-miss memories like mine, here's a quick recap: Our 2007 undercover investigation at ONPRC found that monkeys were tormented by laboratory staffers, forced to eat food out of waste-filled trays, denied medical care or pain relief, and driven mad by horrific laboratory conditions. Still, despite undeniable video evidence, the USDA somehow didn't see anything wrong at ONPRC.

At that point, ONPRC may have thought that it had won and that we would slink away. But, hey, this is PETA, after all, so think again, monkey abusers!

This past fall, we obtained new internal documents from ONPRC that detailed further abuse and neglect, so we submitted a new complaint to the USDA. In it, we outlined the following incidents:

• A sick, pregnant monkey was denied veterinary care and pain relief because the experimenters "didn't know the signs of animal pain and distress" (the mother and her unborn baby both died).


• A surgical sponge was left inside a baboon and was only discovered after the monkey was killed for an experiment.


• ONPRC experimenters accidentally performed surgery on the wrong monkey.

Wow. Cold-hearted and inept—a deadly combination.

Based on our complaint, the USDA inspected ONPRC, and this time, it confirmed our allegations. So ONPRC was cited for three violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including causing monkeys trauma, stress, harm or discomfort and failing to adequately monitor and provide veterinary care to animals.

And the agency didn't stop there: In December, the USDA issued an "official warning" to ONPRC that it may face civil or criminal penalties if additional violations are found in the future.

It's a hopeful sign of progress, but we're hardly done with ONPRC. After all, these incidents are only a small part of the cruelty still being inflicted on the more than 4,000 primates there.

Posted by Jeff Mackey

thailand / CC

No, you're not experiencing déjà vu. This is the second blog in two days in which we've reported that primates have taken aim at humans—literally. In the latest instance, a monkey in Thailand—fed up with performing the thankless task of climbing coconut trees to retrieve fruit for his owner to sell—apparently launched a coconut at the man's head, killing him instantly. Did we mention that payback is hell?

Like so many animals who are exploited for profit, the monkey, whose name is Brother Kwan, was frequently denied rest and beaten if he refused to climb.

This story comes on the heels of a report last week about a chimpanzee in a Swedish Zoo who collects stockpiles of rocks and then chucks them at zoo visitors.

How much more proof do we need that primates are intelligent animals with the ability to reason, get mad, and fight back? Better watch your back, Castrol.

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

Happy Friday, y'all! Starting off with our first bite of soup, I'll offer you a taste of something that I'll never get tired of hearing about:

• In the 80s we convinced the USDA to fine a laboratory in which a number of chimpanzees "lived." The chimpanzees would spend the majority of their 30 years on earth inside cages, locked in a basement with barely any light. We've worked on the case since then, and things have slowly moved forward. Here's the heart-melting part: They're now breathing the fresh air at the Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest in Seattle. Here's a video of some of the chimpanzees from that laboratory reacting to their first snowfall.



• Now, for more fun stuff: It's a duck in a truck. This here is a clip of a truck driver who's found the answer to world peace in his best friend, Frankie the duck.



• We at PETA get a big kick out of the genius of the lolcats. Their Web site, icanhascheezburger.com, could use a name change, but we'll let that slide for now as they've cooked up a lovely anti-fur ad.



• May I present a shining example of evil genius put to effective use? This cute and very twisted video game called Beefbash perfectly conveys the gruesomeness of meat by putting the electric prod and carving knife right into your hands. You even get to choose the adorable animal you butcher.



• Good news for pigs in Germany! Many male pigs will no longer be castrated before they are turned into food for a huge Dutch supermarket. Check out the story here.



• If your doctor tells you to go home and eat more fish, show him or her this article.



• And last but not least, if you're still angry enough to spit at the abuse that those chimpanzees who now live in Seattle used to endure, take a gander at this karma. The wee monkey actually kept going until the stick broke!

Well, that was quite a large serving this month, and it was quite satisfying, if I do say so myself! Now that you've had your fill, off you go.

Until next time!

Posted by Missy Lane

Four monkey-masked PETA members paid Yale a little visit yesterday in honor of National Primate Liberation Week.

As motorists passed underneath the banner-wielding monkeys, they were reminded that "Yale Murders Monkeys." Well, specifically, Yale imprisons monkeys in tiny cages, mutilates them, injects them with poison, forces drug addiction on them, and eventually kills the animals as part of the experiments—but "murders" pretty much covers it, don't you think?

That's right—the more than 160 primates who are locked up in Yale's laboratories are the subjects of many cruel experiments, several of them drug-related. Some of the more heinous abuses include injecting toxins into monkeys’ brains so that they can’t walk, move or eat, addicting the monkeys to PCP to induce schizophrenia (excuse me?) and addicting them to nicotine by giving them the equivalent of smoking 17 packs of cigarettes per day. Because, ya know, exposing a monkey to 17 packs' worth is really reflective of an average human smoker's habits. Right.

The vivisectors at Yale are even killing pregnant monkeys and removing their fetuses in order to cut out their brains. If this were happening anywhere else, it would be condemned as psychopathic, murderous behavior—but because it's done in the name of "science," we're expected to accept this.

Well, forgive me, but this isn't the kind of thing that we at PETA tend to accept—and neither, I think, would most reasonable people. These monkeys are being tortured and murdered at taxpayer expense, but who said the taxpayers approve?

If you don't approve, please write the National Institutes of Health and ask them to end their policy of funding animal experiments like these.

Posted by Amanda Schinke

paddleasia / CC

Charles River Laboratories has finally had to own up to killing 32 monkeys under their "care." The monkeys were baked alive when a thermostat malfunctioned; no alarm system was in place to alert staff to save the monkeys. Nobody even knew about the deaths until the following morning.

Charles River's announcement follows a string of contact with PETA from a whistleblower claiming to be a Charles River employee, who was concerned about what appeared to be gross negligence. We immediately followed up with a formal complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (the body charged with enforcing the minimal standards of the Animal Welfare Act), which subsequently opened an inquiry into the lab.

"This is a terrible and unfortunate tragedy," the company said in a statement released to the media. The monkeys were slated to be used in preclinical drug experiments, so Charles River's concern is quite curious. The deaths were written off as the result of "several human errors"—unlike the frequent and intentional monkey murders that preclinical testing laboratories voluntarily participate in.

This accident is only one disgusting incident among many for Charles River's abysmal record. They were cited for 22 violations of the ever-so-minimal standards of the pitifully limited Animal Welfare Act in 2005 alone, and they netted 20 violations (as reported to federal officials) in 2006 and 2007.

Stay tuned to this spot. More's afoot on this front.

Posted by Sean Conner

If you were watching the news last week, you probably caught the story about vivisectors at the University of Pittsburgh who—to hear the media report it—have performed "groundbreaking" work that will help people with paralyzing conditions gain more control over their lives.

So what did these miracle workers do? They sawed into the skulls of monkeys, implanted tiny electrodes in the monkeys' brains, and trained the monkeys to perform certain tasks. In similar studies, experimenters "train" monkeys by depriving them of water for extended periods of time so that out of thirsty desperation, the monkeys will comply.

The electrodes in the monkeys' brains were attached to a computer, and the computer was attached to a robotic arm. The vivisectors restrained the monkeys' arms and had the animals use their thoughts to move the robotic arm to their mouths so that they could get the food.

Now, this may sound pretty extraordinary. The thing is that the experiments had already been performed on humans by researchers at Brown University nearly two years ago! Of course, in the case of the human studies, the people weren't taken from their families and imprisoned alone in tiny metal and concrete cages, where they could only take a single step in any direction; they weren't kept thirsty and hungry so that they could be "trained"; and they weren't deprived of the feeling of the ground beneath their feet, the warmth of the sun on their backs, the wind in their faces, and everything else that is natural and important to them.

It would seem that the lives of the monkeys used in the University of Pittsburgh's experiments are worth so little to the vivisectors that they continue to abuse and torment them, just to duplicate concepts already proved using humans.

PETA primate specialist Dr. Debra Durham, who has worked in primate labs and knows firsthand how ugly these places are, minces no words when describing what happens to monkeys in these hellholes:

It probably comes as no surprise that monkeys traumatized in labs suffer physically and psychologically. Studies have shown that roughly 90 percent of monkeys in labs have serious psychological symptoms, while another 15 to 25 percent engage in some form of self-mutilation. … For monkeys, laboratories are their Guantanamo.

—Grace

Posted by Grace Freidan, Researcher

Washoe, the chimpanzee who became world-famous after learning sign language and teaching it to other primates, died last week in Washington State. PETA’s Primate Specialist, Debra Durham, wrote this great op-ed about Washoe, and what we can learn from her experience, which appeared in The Saint Paul Pioneer Press yesterday. Check it out:

What We Learned From a Chimp
BY DEBRA DURHAM

Last week, we mourned the loss of an icon - Washoe. She was one of the few chimpanzees people are likely to know by name - in large part because she learned to use American Sign Language. She famously taught it to fellow chimpanzees, and the people who know her best shared stories about her fibs and her apparent sense of humor.


Was it language? It seems that not everyone is convinced, but does that matter? No one disputes that communication took place. Whether human or chimpanzee, Washoe's companions shared and created meaning with her.


Thanks to decades of fieldwork by scientists from around the globe, we know a great deal about chimpanzees like Washoe, who was herself taken from Africa decades ago. In June, scientists explained how chimpanzees would freely choose to help a human if they saw that he or she needed help.


In March, news stories came out about chimpanzees who showed particular kindness and understanding to group members who had cerebral palsy. If we add these to the long list of things once thought to be the special domain of humans - culture, tool use, the capacity for language - the gap between humans and chimpanzees becomes smaller and smaller. We are not identical, but we have a great deal in common.


This isn't altogether surprising as chimpanzees are our closest primate relatives, sharing 98 or 99 percent of our DNA. We've all heard that chimpanzees are smart and that they are an endangered species. But Washoe revealed to us something beyond our broad similarities.


Some people writing about her death have claimed that she changed what it meant to be human - that she changed our society. That, I suppose, is true - but there is more to that lesson. Washoe also helped us see what it means to be chimpanzee. When she spoke her mind, signing about her wants and needs, playing jokes or tricks, showing empathy, she embodied a message of compassion - one that we have not fully heard.


Neither the knowledge of our commonalities with chimpanzees - cognitive, cultural and otherwise - nor their capacity to suffer has inspired adequate protection for these animals. Despite their bright minds and unique personalities, many chimpanzees spend their lives inside small metal laboratory cages, where they endure terror, physical pain and trauma. People may be shocked to learn that laboratories in the United States are allowed to keep chimpanzees in cages about the size of a kitchen table.


In light of the lessons taught by Washoe, her fellow signing apes, and all that we know about chimpanzees, we must now realize that how we currently keep and treat chimpanzees in U.S. laboratories is replete with ethical problems. It's time for the United States to join nations all over the world, from Austria to Liberia and New Zealand, that have banned experiments on chimpanzees. It is the right and compassionate thing to do. I'm sure that Washoe would have signed that she agreed.

Joan Court is 88 years old, and she's been working on behalf of animals for a very long time. Yesterday in Oxford, she made another powerful statement for animals that has already garnered international media attention. Accompanied by members of PETA UK holding signs reading, "Save Felix - Oxford, Stop Primate Torture", Joan donned a prisoner costume and sat in a small cage as she began a 48-hour fast. Joan’s fast is a protest of the vile brain experiments that are being inflicted on a monkey named Felix by a fellow named Tipu Aziz who, in a more civilized society, would have been tried, sentenced, and exiled to some barren desert a very long time ago. PETA UK is asking members of the public to contact Home Secretary John Reid and urge him to release Felix immediately to an accredited sanctuary and stop the expansion of the Oxford animal laboratory. And the redoubtable Joan Court is making a larger point—since this week is World Week for Animals in Laboratories—about the barbaric nature of animal experimentation. Do you really need an octogenarian in a cage to tell you that torturing intelligent primates is wrong? You can read the full story here, but keep Joan in your thoughts today—she's going to be very hungry.

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