Decades-Long Baboon Experiments End at Eastern Virginia Medical School

Records obtained by PETA show that Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) experimenter Gerald Pepe has not purchased any baboons since he killed the remaining four monkeys imprisoned in his laboratory in 2024. As a result, Pepe has had no baboons available to torment, surgically mutilate, or kill in his laboratory. Pepe’s funding for the experiments has now dried up as well, signaling that they are over. This development follows years of pressure from PETA and our supporters, including complaints to state and federal authorities, investigations that exposed the suffering of individual baboons in Pepe’s laboratory, and calls from state legislators to close the laboratory and transfer surviving baboons to reputable sanctuaries, which Pepe callously ignored. PETA will continue monitoring EVMS to ensure that baboons are never again purchased for experiments.