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Continuing protests against NASA’s radiation tests on monkeys

“NASA prides itself on looking to the future, but when it comes to crude and cruel animal experiments, the agency is stuck in the Dark Ages,”

PETA to hold protest at NASA Ames against monkey experiment – San Jose Mercury News By Diana Samuels Daily News Staff Writer : 01/28/2010

A half-dozen people dressed in monkey masks and locked inside small cages plan to demonstrate in front of NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field today, protesting radiation experiments on primates.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, has been sending demonstrators to NASA centers across the country since December to protest an experiment that will expose 18 to 28 squirrel monkeys to radiation in an effort to determine how similar radiation in space might affect human astronauts. The experiment, to be conducted by scientists at the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., is funded by NASA.

Six demonstrators plan to be in front of NASA Ames’ main gates at noon today, carrying signs that read “No Tax $ for Animal Abuse” and “Stop Radiation Tests on Monkeys,” according to a PETA statement.

“NASA prides itself on looking to the future, but when it comes to crude and cruel animal experiments, the agency is stuck in the Dark Ages,” PETA Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo said in a statement. “Monkeys are highly social, sensitive, and intelligent animals. Harming them in experiments so that NASA can check off another item on its seemingly endless list of questions about outer space is unjustifiable, especially when modern, humane research methods exist.”

NASA Ames officials could not be reached for comment Thursday.

PETA to hold protest at NASA Ames against monkey experiment – San Jose Mercury News

January 30, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | radiation, radioactive