Photo Op: ‘Monkeys,’ ‘Rats,’ ‘Beagles’ to Confront Neuroscientists at D.C. Conference

For Immediate Release:
November 12, 2026

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

PETA supporters wearing striking animal masks will rally outside the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on Monday during the Society for Neuroscience’s annual meeting, calling on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to stop funding neuroscience experiments on animals. Animal defenders will carry signs featuring images of animals in laboratories and the declaration “I’m Me, Not Lab Equipment” to call out the experimenters in attendance, including primate experimenters Elizabeth Buffalo and Jan Zimmermann.

From 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., a mobile display will also circle the event screening footage of baby monkeys at the federally funded Washington National Primate Research Center at the University of Washington, where Buffalo, who is slated to chair a session, conducts neuroscience experiments. The video shows infant monkeys who were taken from their mothers and subjected to repeated neurological tests in which electrodes were attached to their heads. The display will also promote the Dec. 10 virtual release of SENTIENT, a documentary following a former University of Washington primate scientist’s journey away from animal experimentation.

Frik, a monkey used in experiments at the University of Utah, as photographed during a PETA investigation. Credit: PETA

“Neuroscientists cut into monkeys’ skulls, poke electrodes into their brains, and keep them hungry or thirsty to coerce them to cooperate in hours-long procedures—some are torn from their mothers at birth and caged in social isolation for years before being killed and dissected, all for experiments that repeatedly fail to translate into meaningful advances for human health,” says PETA neuroscientist Dr. Katherine Roe. “PETA calls on NIH to end all funding for this pointless torment and support state-of-the-art, human-relevant research.”

Where: Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Allen Y. Lew Place N.W., at the intersection with Seventh St. N.W., Washington

When: Monday, Nov. 16, 12 noon

Interviews will be available on site and remotely.

Why: Laboratories across the country confine thousands of monkeys and other animals who endure painful procedures, social isolation, and deprivation in neuroscience experiments that fail to help humans.

Among them are monkeys such as Dorothy, an elderly rhesus macaque Buffalo kept in solitary confinement and experimented on for the final two and a half years of her life. Buffalo kept Dorothy hungry and restrained, drilled into her skull, and implanted a titanium post.

Zimmermann conducts invasive and deadly brain surgeries on monkeys at the University of Minnesota. During a botched surgery on a monkey named Everett, Zimmermann drilled screws into Everett’s skull, 20 of which reportedly pierced his brain. Zimmermann has also addicted monkeys to cocaine before forcing them through withdrawal.

PETA scientists have developed a practical roadmap, Research Modernization NOW, to replace experiments on animals with state-of-the-art, human-relevant research methods.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on or abuse in any other way”—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.