Target: Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard
Goal: Applaud the end of cruel experiments on baby monkeys that included intentional traumatization.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have put an end to the distressing psychological experiments they had been inflicting on baby monkeys for 30 years after a yearlong PETA campaign and a petition by the ForceChange community. The researcher who led these appalling tests, Stephen Suomi, will no longer experiment on animals and his laboratory will be closed down.
The experiments involved infant Rhesus monkeys being taken from their mothers at birth and purposefully traumatized to study anxiety and depression. These young monkeys were terrorized with loud sounds, robotic snakes and human experimenters, confined to tiny wire cages and rendered alcoholic through ethanol injections in order to worsen their mental distress. These horrible experiments have crippled many of these innocent animals for life.
The end of these horrific tests comes after a loud response by celebrities such as James Cromwell and Bob Barker, as well as Dr. Jane Goodall who stated that these inhumane experiments were easily replaceable with better research involving human volunteers. Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard led the review into the facility undertaking these awful experiments.
In response to the news, she said, “I am proud to have helped get the NIH to stop these experiments, and I am please that the laboratory where the experiments are conducted will be closed after more than thirty years. However, there is still more work to do. We must send these monkeys to sanctuaries, and get closer review of all primate tests so that we can identify and end unnecessary experiments.”
Sign this petition thanking Congresswoman Roybal-Allard for her hard work in ending these experiments and for her continuing dedication to identify and end many more across the country.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Representative Roybal-Allard,
I would like to praise you for helping put an end to the cruel experiments on infant monkeys in NIH laboratories. This has been a crucial success, considering these inhumane and wasteful experiments were allowed to carry on for 30 years. I was also glad to hear that Stephen Suomi will no longer be allowed to experiment on animals and that his laboratory will be shut down.
I would also like to applaud your continuing dedication to reviewing all primate tests and ending unnecessary experiments. Animals are sentient beings who exist in their own right. They aren’t ours to use for our own purposes and should therefore never be experimented on. Nonetheless, thousands of tests on monkeys and other animals are still carried out in labs across the country. Please continue working toward ending all animal testing. Thank you again for your help with this vital victory and for your ongoing commitment to end these experiments.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo credit: PETA
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