UW Panel Bans Former UW Primate Center Head From Experimenting on Animals: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
July 18, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding an unprecedented and unanimous decision by the University of Washington’s (UW) animal oversight committee suspending all four of Michele Basso’s experiments on monkeys and other animals citing Basso’s blatant disregard of the rules, a lack of responsibility, and a loss of trust in the former leader of the federally funded Washington National Primate Research Center. Basso was hired to direct the primate center in 2021, but following a letter from PETA to the Board of Regents outlining serious problems, she was removed from that position in 2024:

The University of Washington’s animal oversight committee finally saw through the bluster and deceit that has run a straight line through Basso’s career at laboratories across the country. Basso’s history of disregard for regulations caused suffering and death, and should have disqualified her from even managing a broom closet at the university. Putting Basso in charge of the primate center speaks volumes about the apparently low scientific rigor at the center, and likely no one else wanted the job. There is no future for failed experiments on monkeys, and the primate center should plan its closure now.