PETA Calls On Space Agency to Ground Cruel and Wasteful Tests and Use 21st Century Research Methods Instead

For Immediate Release:
November 18, 2009

Contact:
Holly Beal 757-622-7382 

Washington -- Wearing monkey masks while locked inside small cages and holding signs that read, "No Tax $ for Animal Abuse," and "Stop Radiation Tests on Monkeys," six PETA members will lead a protest outside the headquarters of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) over the agency's plan to subject as many as 28 squirrel monkeys to a massive dose of gamma radiation followed by a lifetime of additional laboratory experiments. Earlier radiation experiments that NASA conducted on monkeys resulted in fatal types of cancer, including brain tumors.

When:   Thursday, November 19, 11 a.m.

Where:  Outside NASA headquarters, 300 E St. S.W. (at the intersection of E Street S.W. and Third Street S.W.), Washington

"NASA prides itself on looking to the future, but when it comes to crude and cruel animal experiments, the agency is stuck in the Dark Ages," says PETA Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. "Monkeys are highly social, sensitive, and intelligent animals. Harming them in experiments so that NASA can check off another item on its seemingly endless list of questions about outer space is unjustifiable, especially when modern, humane research methods exist."

Because of the biological differences between species, results of radiation experiments on monkeys cannot be reliably applied to humans. In a letter to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr., PETA pointed out that NASA can study humans who have been to space and could also rely on modern research methods, including the use of human cell cultures that would yield results relevant to humans--something that animal experiments cannot do.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.