Monkeys Starve, Choke, Suffocate to Death at WaNPRC: Shut It Down

The Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) is a federally funded failure at every level.

Monkeys repeatedly escape, die preventable deaths, and suffer even when they’re not being experimented on due to bumbling staff, incompetent leadership, and a wholesale culture of disregard for scientific integrity at the facility, run by the University of Washington.

This horror show is on an inexplicable six-decade run, producing mounds of monkey corpses—all while taxpayers foot the billion-dollar bill. PETA needs your help to shut it down.

Cruelty and Chaos

WaNPRC has violated the federal Animal Welfare Act more than two dozen times in the past decade, with inspectors finding broken cages, unsafe housing, and animals overdosed, among other horrors.

Monkeys at the center have suffocated, starved, choked to death on their own vomit, been mauled by other stressed monkeys, had their limbs mangled, died from diarrheal diseases, and more.

Experimenters repeatedly violate protocol by injecting monkeys with unsafe drug doses, using them in tests too many times, and infecting them with the wrong virus strains. WaNPRC experimenter Fritzie Arce-McShane blasted an elderly monkey with so much unauthorized radiation that his body broke down. He suffered for weeks with painful radiation poisoning symptoms before being killed.

The center’s leaders are no better. Experimenter Michele Basso was appointed director in 2021 despite a decades-long rap sheet of botched monkey surgeries, repeated clashes with veterinarians, and a disregard for oversight. Basso was ousted from her position in 2024 following a push from PETA, but animal welfare violations have continued under the center’s replacement director.

WaNPRC’s derelict operations extend across state lines, too. Its monkey breeding colony—operating in a regulatory gray zone on tribal land in Arizona—is plagued by ramshackle, contaminated infrastructure, and chronic understaffing, leaving more than 400 globally endangered monkeys in the care of too few veterinarians.

Shut It Down

Join thousands of PETA supporters calling for the immediate closure of the WaNPRC and the release of the monkeys to appropriate sanctuaries to live out their lives with the safety and dignity that they deserve. Please send polite comments to University of Washington officials by copying and pasting this block of e-mail addresses in the “To” field of your e-mail:

[email protected]; [email protected]

Please feel free to use our sample letter, but remember that using your own words is always more effective.