TELL CONGRESS: No More Money for Elisabeth Murray’s Monkey Terror Lab

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In a taxpayer-funded laboratory at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), experimenter Elisabeth Murray has subjected hundreds of monkeys—many of them intentionally brain-damaged—to devastating social isolation, repeated surgeries, and worthless tests. We need your help to get this lab shut down.

image of monkey in cage

Shocking footage of Murray’s experiments shows frightened monkeys inside small cages being terrorized repeatedly with fake but realistic-looking snakes and spiders. First, the monkeys are subjected to multiple invasive surgeries to induce permanent brain damage or to affix titanium head posts directly to their skulls.

During behavioral testing, Murray keeps the animals thirsty or hungry, blows puffs of air into their eyes, and restrains them for extended periods. They’re caged alone for years, some for even more than a decade—condemned to social isolation that causes profound psychological and physiological distress.

Seemingly running out of fresh ideas for abusing her victims, Murray has resorted to subjecting some of them to other bizarre experiments, in which she forces them to watch videos of cartoon shapes—just so she can see if they think the cartoons have feelings.

Murray’s laboratory has been tormenting monkeys in painful and invasive experiments for more than four decades, squandering more than $50 million of your federal tax money since 1998 to do so. That’s $50 million that could have been invested in the multitudes of modern, humane, clinically relevant research methods that could easily, effectively, and permanently replace Murray’s cruel and useless tests.

That’s where you come in. Please join thousands of PETA supporters in calling on your members of Congress to urge NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli to put an end to Murray’s experiments.

After you take action, you’ll see an easy way to share this information. Please ask five of your friends or relatives to support this campaign!

Only U.S. residents can take action on this alert. Individuals living outside the U.S. can speak out against her experiments here.

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Message to {contact_data~firstName} {contact_data~lastName}:

As your constituent, I’m writing to ask for your help in ending one of the longest-running and most disturbing sets of experiments on monkeys in our nation’s history.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) experimenter Elisabeth Murray cuts through the skulls of monkeys to permanently damage their brains. Then she torments them in various ways: She scares them with rubber snakes and spiders, forces them to drink bitter-tasting liquids, and blows puffs of air directly into their eyes. She screws titanium posts directly into their skulls so their heads can be clamped into place, and to make them cooperate, she keeps them thirsty or hungry.

Murray has subjected other monkeys to bizarre experiments in which she forces them to watch videos of cartoon shapes to determine if the animals think the shapes have feelings.

The monkeys she uses have been kept alone in cages for years—some of them for as long as it takes a child to go from kindergarten through the first year of college. Some monkeys have suffered from stress-induced diarrhea for years.

PETA has released video footage—recorded by the experimenters—of just some of this cruelty. Please visit PETA.org/Taxes to see the footage and find out more.

Forty years of this torment haven’t led to even one scientific breakthrough for either monkeys or humans. Meanwhile, millions of dollars have been siphoned away from more promising, non-animal research methods. Since 1998, NIH has funneled more than $50 million into this laboratory.

Will you urge NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli to end these experiments and release the monkeys to sanctuaries?

Thank you.

Sincerely,

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