Written by PETA
Victory Update: Following a year of vigorous campaigning, PETA has learned that government officials have grounded plans for a cruel and ineffective radiation experiment on monkeys. Learn more about this victory for monkeys.
TiVo alert: April Evans, my nominee for Gutsiest Animal Defender of the Year, is scheduled to appear on Issues With Jane Velez-Mitchell tonight. Evans, who is also featured in today's Houston Chronicle, is the NASA engineer who walked away from her dream job working on development of the International Space Station to take a stand against NASA's cruel and pointless radiation experiments on monkeys.
"I began to feel guilty that I was part of an organization doing this," she told the Chronicle. "I've dedicated myself to trying to stop these experiments."
And she means it: Evans now spends her days working to halt NASA's misguided monkey radiation project and campaigning for an international treaty to end space experiments on primates.
You can support PETA's and April's efforts to stop these experiments by sending an e-mail to the Brookhaven National Laboratory, where a portion of these experiments are set to take place. (And don't forget to join PETA's NASA Facebook group.)
Written by Alisa Mullins
Who wouldn't, right? Earlier this month, we asked our Twitter followers to let everyone know what they'd rather do than torment animals in NASA's cruel radiation experiments.
If you haven't heard, NASA plans to spend $1.75 million of our tax dollars to fund an experiment that entails irradiating squirrel monkeys, socially isolating them in barren cages, and then watching what happens to their minds and bodies. Effects of the radiation exposure may include blindness, brain tumors, and cancer. This is why we pay taxes?
Check out these creative Tweets from the tweeps who are exposing NASA's monkey-torment plan:
And if you haven't yet, let NASA know how you feel. It's not too late, tweeple!
Written by Paula Moore
It's World Week for Animals in Laboratories—do you know where your tweets are? Hopefully, they will soon be winging their way to NASA, with 140 characters of outrage (politely worded, of course) at its absurd plan to spend $1.75 million to bombard up to 30 squirrel monkeys with radiation and then lock them up and watch their bodies and minds deteriorate (which, based on past radiation experiments, could include blindness, brain tumors, and other types of cancer).
After you've tweeted at NASA, head on over to Lori Garver's Facebook page (she's NASA's deputy administrator) to let her know where you weigh in on the "Save the Monkeys" debate. And don't forget to link to PETA's action alert on your home page.
Then pick up the phone and give Garver (202-358-1020) and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden (202-358-1010) a call. Tell them you'd much prefer that your tax dollars be spent on modern, humane research methods that actually have some relevance to humans.
Finally, ask your congressional representative to use his or her influence to blast NASA's cruel, wasteful, and possibly illegal plan to another galaxy—preferably one with no life forms that the space agency can exploit.
Blasting as many as 30 monkeys with radiation and then imprisoning them for the rest of their lives in tiny steel cages in order to assess how the radiation damages their bodies is wrong on too many levels to count. And it also appears to violate NASA's own guidelines—and federal regulations too.
According to new information obtained by PETA through the Freedom of Information Act, NASA appears to have violated its own grant guidelines and the Code of Federal Regulations by approving the outlay of nearly $2 million in taxpayer money on this cruel and wasteful experiment before they had even been evaluated for scientific validity by one of the facilities where they would be taking place and even though the lead experimenter had missed crucial deadlines for receiving approval for the project.
NASA's guidelines state that grant applications that don't meet the relevant requirements will be "declared noncompliant and declined without review," so PETA has filed a complaint with NASA calling for an immediate investigation and asking for the misguided project to be disqualified from receiving even one penny of our tax dollars.
Join us in stopping this abuse of monkeys before it happens by urging Congress to end the barbaric plan.
Written by Logan Scherer
While the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and privacy advocates play hot potahto over proposed full-body scans at airport security checkpoints, we at PETA say, "Bring 'em on." Pourquoi? Well, several reasons, really:
Metal underwear! That's right: Coming soon to security checkpoints everywhere, TSA employees will get an eyeful of our message to NASA as caring individuals educate TSA employees about NASA's plans to blast as many as 30 monkeys with one huge dose of radiation. The agency will then imprison the animals by themselves in tiny steel cages and subject them to years of tests in order to assess how the radiation damages their brains and bodies. Unlike the rays emitted by airport body scans, this extreme radiation may cause brain tumors and other types of cancer.
Officials at the TSA have already been alerted that PETA's metal underwear is on the way. But we are wondering—will you expose TSA employees to the truth about NASA's experiments on your next flight?
Written by Karin Bennett
It was a cagey scene outside NASA headquarters in D.C. yesterday when our primates urged NASA to scrap its misguided $1.75 million plan to torment monkeys in radiation experiments. The demonstration was out-of-this-world spectacular, prompting NASA employees to approach our volunteers for some dynamic discussions. No one could walk by these guys without stopping to have a second look:
The more than two dozen monkeys in NASA's crude experiment will be zapped with a massive dose of radiation at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Long Island, New York, and then spend the rest of their lives condemned to a laboratory at Harvard's McLean Hospital where they'll be enlisted in a never-ending series of experiments to assess how the radiation devastates their brains and bodies. NASA has admitted that the radiation is "going to cause some cellular damage." What they really mean is that the monkeys may likely suffer from brain damage, cancer and premature aging.
It goes without saying that you should urge NASA to abandon these abhorrent experiments ASAP.
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.
We're not the only ones worshipping at the altar of design deity Stella McCartney. Harper's Bazaar has named the fur-free fashionista the best-dressed woman of 2009.
It's no coincidence that Stella—who is one of the most powerful innovators in the industry—has taken top honors. She is stunningly stylish proof that it's never chic to wear fur or leather. We're sure that Stella's benevolent reign over the fashion world is a permanent position. Compassionate couture always comes out on top.
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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