Cabal of Monkey Experimenters Choose Money Over Good Science, Human Health: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
May 4, 2023

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement by PETA Senior Science Advisor on Primate Experimentation Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel regarding a report just issued by an ad hoc committee convened by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to investigate the use of primates in experimentation:

It’s appalling that NASEM’s cabal of monkey experimenters has ignored the directive from Congress, which was prompted by the cruelty in NIH-conducted brain damage experiments, and turned this study into a plea to keep themselves in business. They also have the audacity to claim that the current U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the smuggling of wild-caught monkeys, the listing of long-tailed macaques as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and the deadly diseases brought into the U.S. in monkeys in the last two years—including one classified as a bioterrorism agent by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—were outside the scope of their review. The committee has concluded that the experimentation industry needs to shift to domestic production of monkeys while failing to deal with the fact that studies on monkeys aren’t leading to treatments for humans. The U.S. should not put these experimenters on government grant welfare to prop up their failing experiments.

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