Southern Research Cited After Monkey Strangles to Death: PETA Urges NIH to Cut Funding

For Immediate Release:
June 13, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Science Advisor Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel regarding a critical violation issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) against contract research laboratory Southern Research Institute in Birmingham, Alabama, after a monkey strangled to death when his collar became trapped in his cage, and staff did not arrive in time to save him.

Southern Research Institute’s latest atrocity is not an accident—it’s the inevitable result of a laboratory culture built on cruelty and indifference. Monkeys do not slip away quietly when their necks are trapped between pieces of metal—they kick, scream, and desperately cry out for help, all telltale signs of distress that staff missed. PETA has filed a complaint with the National Institutes of Health calling on the agency to yank the facility’s funding, because it has repeatedly demonstrated an aversion to providing basic care and preventing gruesome deaths by racking up eight violations of animal welfare regulations and two USDA official warnings since 2021.

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.