VIDEO: PETA Confronts UMass Chancellor Over Monkey Tests During Local Alumni Event
For Immediate Release:
March 13, 2024
Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382
PETA supporters confronted University of Massachusetts–Amherst (UMass) Chancellor Javier Reyes over the school’s horrific menopause experiments on marmosets during an alumni gathering at West Palm Beach Marriott on Okeechobee Boulevard yesterday evening. While attendees chatted under palm trees, PETA supporters carried signs that read, “Chancellor Javier Reyes, Stop Supporting Monkey Torture,” and shouted, “Switch to human-relevant science! Over 40 monkeys have died in this lab. Shame on you!” and “Please, we beg you, these monkeys are suffering!” Video footage is available here.
Experimenters at UMass screw electrodes onto monkeys’ skulls, surgically remove their ovaries, pump them full of hormones, and heat their bodies with hand warmers to mimic hot flashes in a bizarre attempt to study menopause, which marmosets don’t naturally experience. Experimenters also cut into their necks, deprive them of water, restrain them for hours at a time with zip ties, and torment them in various other ways.
“UMass alums should know that their alma mater is tormenting sensitive marmosets in cruel, deadly, and scientifically pointless experiments,” says PETA neuroscientist Dr. Katherine Roe. “PETA is urging Chancellor Reyes to shut down this shoddy laboratory and embrace modern, animal-free research that’s actually relevant to humans.”
PETA has been contacted by numerous UMass alums and donors concerned about the school’s animal welfare violations. The U.S. Department of Agriculture cited the university for severely burning a marmoset with hand warmers as he was recovering from surgery, failing to alert an attending veterinarian to sick animals, and permitting several monkeys to escape and sustain injuries.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
