USDA Hits University of Washington With Critical Citation Following PETA Complaint Over Monkey Escape

For Immediate Release:
October 15, 2026

Contact:
Sydney Rader 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Chief Science Advisor for Primate Experimentation, Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel, regarding a critical citation issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) against the University of Washington (UW) for a mass escape of monkeys at its Arizona breeding facility, which supplies the Washington National Primate Research Center’s Seattle laboratories. UW staff failed to properly secure a lock on an enclosure following a cage change, allowing a group of pig-tailed macaques to escape and come into contact with another group. Eight monkeys were injured, three required surgeries to repair lacerations, and one was ultimately euthanized after approximately four months of treatment for injuries sustained during fights among the stressed monkeys. PETA discovered the incident and, in a complaint, urged the USDA to investigate. The agency’s action is rare and reserved for the most egregious violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act:

Multiple monkeys were injured and one died because the staff at the University of Washington’s Arizona monkey breeding facility couldn’t even keep the primates safely enclosed. The university avoided responsibility for this preventable failure for two years before PETA brought it to light. This new citation comes on the heels of PETA’s release of video showing grotesque experiments on days-old monkeys at the primate center’s infant primate research laboratory in Seattle. The question both raise is the same: How many more monkeys must suffer before UW ends the misery? PETA is calling for the Washington National Primate Research Center to be shut down.

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.