Escapes from Texas Biomed’s Primate Center Threaten Public Health: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
June 29, 2026

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Chief Advisor for Primate Experimentation, Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel, regarding the June 24 escape of an undisclosed number of baboons from the Southwest National Primate Research Center (SNPRC) at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed) in San Antonio, Texas—one day before Texas Biomed announced that the National Institutes of Health lavished a $37.5 million grant on it to expand the primate center to study ever-more dangerous pathogens:

Texas Biomed receives tens of millions in federal funding, yet it cannot even keep the baboons it uses confined. No matter how the facility would like to downplay this incident, baboons roaming around after escaping a facility dealing with dangerous pathogens is a serious public health threat. It’s also not the first time it has happened. Monkeys also escaped in 2018, an incident the facility falsely called “truly unique.” PETA has requested an immediate investigation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but it is crystal clear that Texas Biomed should shut down its cruel primate center.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.