Chilling Virtual Reality Experience From peta2 Promises Alien Encounters at University of Washington

For Immediate Release:
April 24, 2025

Contact:
Brandi Pharris 202-483-7382

Coming to the University of Washington this week is peta2’s award-winning virtual reality experience, Abduction, which is touring the country to encourage empathy for animals caged in laboratories on university campuses.

In this eerie experience, visitors will enter a mysterious truck containing a mobile virtual reality studio and find themselves seemingly stranded with a couple of fellow humans in the desert, only to be abducted by aliens, taken aboard a spaceship, and subjected to a shocking experience that mirrors what other species endure in laboratories. They’ll watch as their friends are subjected to painful tests—knowing that they’ll be next.

Where:     University of Washington Central Plaza, a.k.a. “Red Square,” in front of Suzzallo Library, 4063 Spokane Ln.

 When:       Monday, April 28 – Wednesday, April 30, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Watch the trailer here.

University of Washington is home to the Washington National Primate Research Center, where monkeys have died from disease, injury, or neglect before they’re used in experiments. The center has violated federal animal welfare laws dozens of times, including when a monkey was strangled to death. Others have starved, been mauled by other stressed monkeys, choked on their own vomit, had their limbs mangled, or died from uncontrolled diarrheal diseases. Recently, experimenter Fritzie Arce-McShane blasted a monkey with so much unauthorized radiation that his body broke down, and he suffered for weeks before he was killed.

The primate center is one of seven National Primate Research Centers across the country—federally funded facilities that have killed hundreds of thousands of monkeys while siphoning billions of taxpayer dollars for cruel, ineffective and deadly experiments that have failed to deliver promised vaccines or cures for human diseases.

In their natural habitat, macaques live in complex, matriarchal societies, forging lifelong bonds, raising their young, and roaming miles each day. At night, they gather in “sleeping trees,” huddling close for warmth, safety, and companionship.

“Many students don’t know that on their own college campuses, frightened and confused animals are psychologically tormented, mutilated, and killed in laboratories with no way to escape or even understand what’s happening to them,” says PETA Associate Director of Innovation and Execution Kenneth Montville. “peta2 is a trailblazer in using immersive VR experiences to open young people’s eyes to this cruelty, help them understand what it feels like, and motivate them to join our call for a switch to superior, non-animal research.”

Studies show that 90% of all basic research—most of which involves animals—fails to lead to treatments for humans. That’s why peta2 is pushing universities to prove their supposed commitment to “replacing, reducing, and refining” the use of animals in experiments.

Since its debut, Abduction has traveled from coast to coast, visiting more than 50 colleges and universities, including Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California–Los Angeles, and the University of Texas at Austin. Abduction was filmed in VR180 with assistance from the immersive content creation studio Prosper XR, won “Gold” and “Audience” honors in the 2023 Shorty Impact Awards, and was a nominee for the 2024 Webby Awards.

peta2—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers young people positive, empowering actions to help animals. For more information, please visit peta2.com or follow peta2 on TikTok or Instagram.