Dozens of Monkeys Suffered Severe Complications in University of Washington Brain Experiments: PETA Statement
For Immediate Release:
August 28, 2026
Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382
Please see the following statement from PETA Chief Science Advisor Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel regarding revelations during yesterday’s University of Washington Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) meeting that two neuroscience experimenters, who had received more than $20 million in funding, subjected 71 macaques to invasive brain experiments between 2020 and 2026, causing complications that included death, tremors, weakness, depression, severe swelling, loss of muscle control, and repeated surgeries after wounds failed to heal properly. The same meeting also revealed that a monkey was put on food restriction, even though that was not allowed:
Washington National Primate Research Center experimenters and the neuroscientist experimenters responsible for these disastrous studies on monkeys should all be shut down. The experimenters subjected monkeys already suffering from complex medical and behavioral problems from previous experiments to suffer even more. These sloppy experimenters, as well as veterinary staff, drilled into monkeys’ skulls, injected viruses into their brains, and repeatedly cut animals back open when they or the robots they had used failed to get surgical wounds to stay closed. The system fails when committees required to provide oversight are stacked with experimenters and their colleagues who respond to violations with counseling letters and treat repeated surgeries, severe complications, and animal suffering as business as usual. The University of Washington’s undeniably cruel neuroscience experiments must be the first to go.
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.
