From People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals (PETA )
December 2010
Following more than a year of vigorous campaigning by animal advocates, NASA has quietly shelved plans for cruel radiation experiments on dozens of monkeys that would have cost $1.75 million, and we are over the moon!
In the proposed NASA-funded experiments that were to be conducted by an experimenter at Harvard's McLean Hospital, dozens of squirrel monkeys would have been exposed to a harmful dose of radiation and then isolated in cages and subjected to years of behavioral experiments in order to measure the damage caused by the radiation. Such damage likely would have included cancerous tumors, cataracts, brain damage, loss of motor control, and early death.
Thanks to tens of thousands of letters, phone calls, protests, and tweets, this misguided plan has been grounded, and monkeys will be spared this cruelty.
In addition to PETA members, our campaign also received support from Sir Paul McCartney, Bob Barker, and Alicia Silverstone. Even former astronauts, NASA engineers, and the European Space Agency spoke out on our side and against NASA's ill-conceived plan to torment squirrel monkeys.
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