Pop-Up Exhibit at HHS HQ: PETA’s Giant Binoculars to Expose Shameful U.S. Monkey Labs

PETA is bringing an appeal to close the seven federally funded National Primate Research Centers to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), along with our 7.5-foot-tall “How the Other Half Lives” binocular installation that juxtaposes macaques thriving in their natural habitats with the isolation, mutilation, and slow deaths endured by those in laboratories.

The National Institutes of Health, part of HHS, recently announced that it will prioritize human-relevant research and move away from experiments on animals. PETA appeals to HHS to close the primate centers, which have subjected hundreds of thousands of monkeys to painful, ineffective, and deadly experiments that have failed to deliver promised vaccines or cures for human diseases.

“These binoculars let viewers peek inside federally funded laboratories, where monkeys go mad in barren cages while their kin thrive with their families in rich forests,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “As our government agencies make strides away from experiments on animals, PETA calls on them to pull the plug on these broken, wasteful laboratories.”

Where: Outside the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Ave. S.W. (near Washington Ave.)

When: Monday, July 21 from 12 noon to 5 p.m.

Tuesday, July 22 – Friday, July 25 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

*PETA’s “How the Other Half Lives” exhibit at the University of Washington, home to one of the seven NPRCs. Credit: PETA*

Why: In their natural habitat, macaques form lifelong bonds, nurture their children, and travel several miles each day to explore diverse habitats. In addition to being killed in experiments, monkeys in laboratories are starved and strangled, scalded to death in high-temperature cage washers, caught behind cages and allowed to die, given the wrong experimental compounds, and more.

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 PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.