Feds Cite University of Texas After Negligence Causes Monkey’s Strangulation Death: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
July 2, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Science Advisor Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel regarding a just-posted citation issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center for a critical violation of the Animal Welfare Act after a squirrel monkey’s head became caught between a cage and cage door and she strangled to death:

A squirrel monkey died a horrific, preventable death at MD Anderson after her head became trapped in a gap in a self-described hospital cage. This facility receives more than a million dollars a year in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to breed and experiment on squirrel monkeys—tiny animals who have never played a meaningful role in advancing human health.

MD Anderson is one of the few institutions still using squirrel monkeys, not because they’re scientifically indispensable, but because NIH funding props up a program that should have ended years ago. When chimpanzee experiments were shut down, the facility didn’t change—it just downsized to squirrel monkeys to keep the money flowing. PETA has filed a formal complaint, urging the NIH to investigate.

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.