Madison Monkey Lab Targeted in New PETA Video From ‘American Psycho’ Director Mary Harron
For Immediate Release:
May 15, 2025
Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382
In a new, hair-raising PETA video, horror director Mary Harron exposes other violent predators—experimenters who mutilate and kill monkeys in cruel laboratory tests—in time for the 25th anniversary of her cult classic American Psycho.
The terrifying TV spot debuts today in Madison. It targets the federally funded Wisconsin National Primate Research Center (WNPRC) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and will run on Adult Swim, MTV, and TV Land through May 21.
The video shows a human strapped to a chair in a barred prison cell. A circular metal device has been screwed into the victim’s head, immobilizing it. A man in a lab coat and surgical mask enters. Pupils dilate. A needle plunges. Screams ring out as a power drill bores into the skull, and there’s a sudden cut to an image of a real monkey in a real laboratory enduring the same kind of invasive torment as monkeys in laboratories across the country.
“I’m working with PETA to call for an end to the use of monkeys and other animals in laboratories, and I hope this video shines a light on the immense pain that experimenters inflict on tens of millions of animals every year,” Harron says.
PETA’s six-month undercover investigation into the WNPRC found monkeys neglected, traumatized, and driven nearly mad by confinement. One baby monkey was attacked by a stressed adult monkey, while other infants were taken away from their mothers or killed. Some monkeys pulled out their hair in frustration.
A recent PETA study found that the WNPRC and the University of Wisconsin–Madison racked up 35 animal welfare violations in just two years, from 2021 to 2023—the most of any of the top National Institutes of Health-funded educational institutions. A 2024 federal inspection uncovered additional violations, including a monkey who was euthanized after a botched blood draw, two others who were burned by heat lamps, and a marmoset who was seriously injured after a cage door slammed on their hand.
In nature, monkeys form deep emotional bonds with their family members. Those born in laboratories are often torn from their anguished mothers, sometimes within just days of birth, and confined to barren steel cages.
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.
