Protesters Blast NASA at Johnson Space Center Over Planned Radiation Experiments on Monkeys

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

For Immediate Release:
June 16, 2010

Contact:
Robbyn Brooks 757-622-7382

Houston, Texas -- Carrying signs that read, "NASA: Stop Cruel Monkey Tests," PETA protesters will ask NASA to scrap plans to spend $1.75 million to subject as many as 30 squirrel monkeys to a dangerous dose of radiation and a lifetime of confinement and experimentation. Today's protest comes as a new PETA billboard is scheduled to go up in Houston today at 6408 Interstate 45 S. (1.5 miles north of Loop 610). The billboard shows a bloody version of the NASA logo and reads, "NASA: Take a Giant Leap for Mankind. Stop Torturing Monkeys,"

When:   Wednesday, June 16, 12 noon

Where:  Johnson Space Center, 1601 NASA Pkwy. (E. NASA Parkway and Second Street), Houston

"PETA wants residents in NASA's hometown to know that the agency plans to squander nearly $2 million of taxpayer money on a cruel, pointless experiment," says PETA Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. "Blasting sensitive, social monkeys with radiation makes as much sense as planning a trip to the moon in a Wright Brothers airplane."

Monkeys in the experiment would be exposed to a harmful dose of radiation that would likely result in brain damage, cancerous tumors, loss of motor control, cognitive decline, or early death. Following the radiation exposure, these highly intelligent and social monkeys would spend the rest of their lives in a laboratory--isolated in cages and subjected to years of behavioral experiments.

PETA points out that NASA could fund studies on humans who have been to space and also could rely on modern research methods, including the use of human tissue cultures and simulators that would yield results relevant to humans--something that animal experiments cannot do. Even NASA's European counterpart--the European Space Agency--has stated that it "declines any interest in monkey research and does not consider any need or use for such result."

For more information, please visit PETA.org.