PETA Scientists Score One for Kindness as UW Panel Nixes New Radiation Tests
Update (March 21, 2025): PETA primate scientists were instrumental yesterday in halting a new round of experiments planned by Fritzie Arce-McShane, the University of Washington experimenter who previously ignored both an established protocol and ethics when she repeatedly irradiated a monkey within an inch of life.
PETA primate scientists spoke against Arce-McShane’s planned 3-year-round of experiments at the university’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee meeting, raising questions about the procedures Arce-McShane wants to carry out and whether they had any scientific merit.
The committee was widely expected to approve Arce-McShane’s proposal. But in a rare event, one committee member openly questioned whether there was any scientific necessity to justify such a cruel experiment.
A veterinarian also described continued concerns about one of the planned surgeries. Previously, an elderly monkey who suffered in the experiment had an electrode implanted in their brain. Skin eventually eroded around it, exposing some wires and threatening infection. Sufficient hardware to prevent this problem from happening again has not been developed, the veterinarian said.
The committee voted to nix the plan. In the end, Arce-McShane couldn’t muster a single vote in her favor.
Welcome as this news is, the fight isn’t over. Arce-McShane now has an opportunity to alter her plan and bring it back again for approval.
PETA will be there to remind the committee there is still no evidence that Arce-McShane will change her ways. She has a record of failing to disclose crucial information to veterinary staff, and her only priority appears to be obtaining data—regardless of the cost to animals.
PETA maintains that the university must hold Arce-McShane accountable and ban her from having any contact with animals, now and forever.
The university should end its unbroken streak of decades-long incompetence and indifference to animal suffering by closing down the Washington National Primate Research Center and switching to superior, non-animal research methods outlined in PETA’s Research Modernization Deal. You can help by taking action below.
Originally published on August 21, 2024:
In a sickening display of apparent cruel indifference, a University of Washington (UW) experimenter went off script on an experiment, nearly irradiating a monkey to death who was later killed after suffering irreversible injuries. PETA now calls on school brass to sack her immediately and requests the university end the study.
Fritzie Arce-McShane, an experimenter in the UW School of Dentistry’s Department of Oral Health Sciences, irradiated an adult male macaque on three consecutive days each week for more than a month between mid-May and late June, ignoring stipulations that there should be a 48-hour recovery period between radiation exposures.
The radiation caused severe radiation toxicity, including discharge from the monkey’s eyes and nose, swelling of his face, eyelids, and lips, red and flaky skin, and loss of appetite. He was unable to fully open his mouth for several weeks.
After one round of radiation, the monkey had little appetite and grimaced even when eating soft foods. His symptoms continued for weeks.
Arce-McShane ignored the obvious suffering. The radiation continued from May 14 to June 26. She also failed to inform veterinary staff of her off-script protocol violations until the monkey’s life was in danger.
The monkey was euthanized after losing all quality of life.
Arce-McShane eventually admitted her misconduct but blamed a wording inconsistency in the protocol, rather than acknowledging an obvious violation of the federal Animal Welfare Act. Still, the U.S. Department of Agriculture slapped the school with a citation for her “critical” violation of federal law.
PETA learned about Arce-McShane’s cruelty at the August 15 meeting of the school’s animal oversight committee, which decided to mete out a slap on the wrist to her.
The National Institutes of Health bankrolls Arce-McShane’s gruesome experiment, which supposedly examines how the macaque moves his jaw and tongue while eating.
What You Can Do
This is only the latest atrocity to take place at the UW’s Washington National Primate Research Center, which has a lengthy, yearslong rap sheet spanning the gamut of animal torment.
Staff negligence exposed 20 imprisoned monkeys to blinding lights 24/7 for nine days. Two other monkeys escaped their cages, leading to fights that severely injured other animals. Another experimenter was cited by federal authorities for failing to give monkeys pain relief after invasive surgeries. And the list goes on.
Please TAKE ACTION to help shut down the Washington National Primate Research Center:
