Feds Just Issued Official Warning On Monkeys to University of Washington: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
March 19, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Science Advisor Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel regarding the Official Warning just levied against the University of Washington by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for three separate violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act in multiple incidents in which monkeys were injured or died at the school’s National Primate Research Center:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Official Warning strips bare the thin pretense that the University of Washington’s primate center is any more than a den of deadly incompetence. The feds cited the veterinary staff for failing monkeys, one of whom died at vet staff hands, revealing that monkeys warehoused in this facility aren’t safe, even when they’re not being experimented on.

Astoundingly, the university’s animal care and use committee (IACUC) is slated to meet tomorrow and is expected to approve another three years of experiments by Fritzie Arce-McShane, the experimenter responsible for irradiating a monkey to near death, despite the USDA’s new citation based on Arce-McShane’s conduct. This conduct includes her failure to provide the IACUC with an accurate description of what the animals were being used for, a pedestrian requirement the IACUC should have ensured was followed.

It is imperative for the university to embrace better science, close the primate center, and stop experimenting on monkeys altogether.

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.