PETA Unveils Giant Binoculars to Give Students Up-Close Look at UW Monkey Torment Vs. “How the Other Half Lives”

For Immediate Release:
April 14, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

University of Washington (UW) students will get an eye-opening view today when PETA unveils “How the Other Half Lives.” This installation, featuring a 7.5-foot-tall pair of binoculars, contrasts footage of macaques thriving peacefully in their natural habitats with the harrowing conditions of those trapped in laboratories—including at the school’s own Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC).

PETA’s installation will kick off at UW and travel to the other six National Primate Research Centers across the country—federally funded facilities that have killed hundreds of thousands of monkeys while siphoning billions of taxpayer dollars for cruel, ineffective and deadly experiments that have failed to deliver promised vaccines or cures for human diseases.   

“These binoculars reveal what UW has hidden: the relentless torment of monkeys in its laboratories juxtaposed with how they should be living in complex social groups, raising their families, and foraging in the wild,” says PETA Senior Science Advisor on primate issues Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel. “PETA calls on UW to shut down its failed primate center, end all cruel and archaic experiments, and transition to modern, animal-free research methods.”

Where:           University of Washington Central Plaza, also known as “Red Square,” in front of Suzzallo Library, 4063 Spokane Ln, University of Washington, Seattle

When:             Daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., April 14–16 and April 21–25

                        Please inquire for locations and times April 17–20

Why:               In their natural habitat, macaques live in complex, matriarchal societies, forging lifelong bonds, raising their young, and roaming miles each day. At night, they gather in “sleeping trees,” huddling close for warmth, safety, and companionship. But this rich existence is being wiped out. Macaque populations are plummeting in part due to the primate experimentation industry that snatches them from the wild to feed a business filled with cruelty, disease, and death. At WaNPRC, monkeys have died from disease, injury, or neglect before they’re used in experiments. The center has violated federal animal welfare laws dozens of times, including when a monkey was strangled to death. Others have starved, been mauled by other stressed monkeys, choked on their own vomit, had their limbs mangled, or died from uncontrolled diarrheal diseases. Recently, UW experimenter Fritzie Arce-McShane blasted a monkey with so much unauthorized radiation that his body broke down—he suffered for weeks before he was killed.

PETA hopes the installation will inspire change just as its namesake did—an 1890 study exposing poverty in the New York tenements. 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.