‘Primates’ to Rattle Swanky UMass Event Over Millions Wasted on Monkey Tests
For Immediate Release:
April 2, 2025
Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382
A giant jailed “marmoset” and stuffed “monkeys” will join PETA supporters outside the Renwick Gallery on Wednesday during a University of Massachusetts–Amherst (UMass) event, calling on Chancellor Javier Reyes to close the laboratory of experimenter Agnès Lacreuse, who has squandered millions in taxpayer money to study menopause in marmosets—a condition they don’t naturally experience.
“While UMass officials hobnob at an art gallery, tax dollars are going down the toilet so that tiny marmosets can be mutilated and killed in ridiculous tests,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “PETA urges Chancellor Reyes to shut down this wasteful laboratory and embrace modern, animal-free research that’s actually relevant to humans.”
Where: Outside the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1661 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. #1, Washington, D.C.
When: Wednesday, April 2, 6 p.m.
Why: In nature, marmosets live in cooperative groups high up in the canopies of rainforests, where they groom each other, huddle affectionately, share food, and care for their young. In Lacreuse’s laboratory, experimenters screw electrodes onto marmosets’ skulls, cut into their necks, deprive them of water, zip-tie them, and shove them into plastic cylinders.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has repeatedly cited UMass for violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act, including two new citations for killing nine animals using expired euthanasia solution and accidentally killing a bird who was placed in an airtight chamber. These recent violations add to the numerous citations UMass has accrued for improper care and handling of the marmosets in Lacreuse’s laboratory.
PETA has urged federal officials to investigate whether Lacreuse misused taxpayer money after she spent approximately $340,000 on a failed sleep deprivation experiment at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center.
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.
