PETA Urges Feds to Yank UW Money After Botched Radiation Experiments on Monkeys Are Suspended

For Immediate Release:
April 7, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Seattle –

In a letter sent today, PETA calls on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to demand the return of grant money from the University of Washington (UW), which accepted more than a million taxpayer dollars this year alone for monkey radiation experiments that were suspended in disgrace months ago.

Fritzie Arce-McShane’s experiments were halted after she violated her own experimental protocol by irradiating an elderly rhesus macaque for three consecutive days a week without a required break and chose not to keep his protective goggles in place. The monkey developed severe radiation poisoning: facial swelling, cracked and peeling skin, and an inability to open his mouth. The damage was so extreme that he was euthanized to end his suffering.

Although UW’s animal oversight committee suspended the experiments in August 2024, the university continued collecting taxpayer funds from NIH—$1,267,577 in the last year—with no indication that it informed the agency or returned any portion of the grant—a requirement in a breach of research integrity or research misconduct. UW kept the money and continued benefiting from the grant’s indirect costs, despite the project’s collapse and an official warning from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for alleged violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act. Finally, after hearing from PETA primate scientists last month, the university’s animal oversight committee also voted against further experiments proposed by Arce-McShane.

*Monkeys used in experiments are often housed inside small, virtually barren cages for their entire lives. For illustrative purposes only. Credit: PETA*

“The University of Washington got caught running a cruel, scientifically hollow experiment, and shut it down under pressure from PETA—yet kept over a million dollars in taxpayer money,” said PETA Senior Science Advisor Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel. “This is how the system works: Animals suffer, universities profit, and NIH keeps writing checks. It’s time to end this grift.”

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.