This 'From the Vault' episode first aired on Monday, September 13, 2021.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, made an appearance on campus last semester. Representatives from the animal rights organization mobilized behind the Student Union and demonstrated against the university’s experimentation on marmoset monkeys.
Protestors held signs that read QUOTE ‘End Marmoset Torture in My Name’ END QUOTE and chanted QUOTE “There is no excuse for animal abuse” as they traversed the length of the campus pond greenery before holding a stand-in at the Morrill Science Building.
Actor Casey Affleck and his mother, Chris Anne Boldt, stood alongside protestors calling for the termination of the marmoset research being conducted at UMass’s Institute for Applied Sciences Models to Medicine Center.
The research program simulates symptoms of female menopause, a biological development that does not occur in the marmoset species. The study seeks to examine the potential interactions between cognitive deficits, sleep disturbances, and thermoregulation impairments that are associated with estrogen loss.
PETA protestors vocalized their opposition to research procedures that require drilling into monkeys’ skulls to insert electrodes and surgically implanting hand warmers in their ovaries to simulate hot flashes.
This is not the first time PETA has come after UMass Amherst for their research department’s treatment of monkeys. In March of 2019, the organization filed a lawsuit against UMass in Suffolk County Superior Court. As of April 10, 2019, the complaint never made it past the initial filing phase.
We spoke to PETA scientist Katherine Roe for more information about last semester’s demonstration.
This episode was produced and edited by Rebeca Pereira.
