Photo Op: Giant PETA ‘Dino’ at Aspen Conference Will Urge NIH Director to Close Monkey Labs

For Immediate Release:
August 18, 2025

Contact:
Brandi Pharris 202-483-7382

A massive inflatable PETA “dinosaur” will share the message, “NIH: Close the Monkey Labs, Stop Jurassic-Sized Waste!” outside the St. Regis Aspen Resort today where National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is speaking at the Technology Policy Institute’s Aspen Forum, urging him to shut down the seven federally funded national primate research centers and stop funding experiments on animals outside the U.S.

The primate centers were created in the 1960s to produce vaccines, but have not provided marketable vaccines for HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, Zika, and a host of other diseases. Instead, they have addicted monkeys to drugs and alcohol, cut into monkeys’ skulls and implanted electrodes in their brains, kept them hungry and thirsty to coerce their cooperation in exchange for a sip of water or a morsel of food, and more. NIH has also spent billions paying experimenters outside the U.S. to addict dogs to opioids, burn mice, inject acid into rats’ brains, and more.

“NIH is wasting lives and precious resources propping up the failed primate research centers and sending hundreds of millions to foreign laboratories,” says PETA Vice President Dr. Alka Chandna. “PETA urges Dr. Bhattacharya to keep to his promise of prioritizing human-relevant research, close the primate laboratories, and ban the funding of foreign animal laboratories.”

When: Monday, August 18, 10:30 a.m.

Where: St. Regis Aspen Resort, 315 E. Dean St., Aspen

Interviews are available on-site and remotely.

Photos will be available here after the event.

Credit: PETA

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.

Note: PETA supports animal rights, opposes all forms of animal exploitation, and educates the public on those issues. PETA does not directly or indirectly participate or intervene in any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office or any political party.