PETA Proposes Turning Harvard Square Theatre Into Animal Experiment ‘House of Horrors’ Exhibit

For Immediate Release:
April 10, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

PETA today sent a letter to Harvard Square Theatre owner Gerald Chan asking him to convert the space, which has been closed since 2012, into an eye-opening “Harvard’s House of Horrors” exhibit, revealing how university experimenters torment and kill animals in gruesome tests, following news that city officials want to redevelop the property.

Harvard experimenter Margaret Livingstone has permanently torn baby monkeys away from their mothers and forced them to wear goggles that simulate disorienting strobe lights for the first 18 months of their lives. She’s sewn other monkeys’ eyes shut, and after years of torment, she kills and dissects many of the animals.

“There’s no undoing the misery that infant monkeys and other animals have suffered for pointless experiments, but creating a space that exposes Harvard’s dark history is a good first step,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “PETA looks forward to seeing ‘Harvard’s House of Horrors’ rally the community into demanding an end to Margaret Livingstone’s ghastly experiments.”

Livingstone has spent 40 years terrifying monkeys and other animals in agonizing experiments. She has collected more than $33 million in taxpayer money despite never producing a single treatment or cure for humans. More than 380 experts—including primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall, conservationist Dr. Ian Redmond, and Harvard anthropologist Dr. Richard Wrangham—have joined PETA and Harvard’s own Animal Law & Policy Clinic in urging the National Institutes of Health to defund Livingstone’s experiments.

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.