Nearly 2,000 monkeys are being held captive at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center (WNPRC)1. They are locked in steel cages, in windowless rooms. Not only do they deal with the stress of an isolated existence, these monkeys are being put through torturous experiments.

The caged macaques are forcibly bred. Almost as soon as the babies are born they are taken from their mothers just as forcibly. Wailing in terror, the newborns are tattooed with an identification code. And when they are old enough to meet the testing criteria, they are shackled by the neck and electrocuted in the genitals1.

These monkeys are so frightened that they mutilate themselves or pace and circle endlessly. Some of them were seen pulling out their own hair.

In the program, which has been running since 20142, rhesus monkeys are put through tests designed to provoke anxiety. Researchers then measure their level of discomfort and compare the findings to another group of 20 monkeys used as a control group. When the test is completed, the monkeys are euthanized and their brains are removed and dissected.

"We're killing baby monkeys," said UW-Madison bioethicist Rob Streiffer2. "There are other things that have been done that are worse, but that's not a justification for saying that this isn't really really bad."

A 6-month undercover investigation conducted by PETA3 found "Cornelius, a monkey who has been at WNPRC for a decade and is usually kept in isolation, was consistently found hunched over or with his face pressed against the cage bars. As one supervisor said, staff are "not supposed to say" that monkeys 'look depressed... but sometimes they just do.'"

The USDA previously and multiple times cited the University of Wisconsin-Madison, under which the facility is hosted, for denying animals basic care4. The school was fined $74,000 by the USDA for 28 violations of federal animal research treatment standards from March 2015 to April 2019.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which gave the WNPRC a grant alongside the $300 million in tax dollars it collected in 2019, have now launched their own investigations into the research facility3.

If action is not taken immediately, many more monkeys like Cornelius will be horrifically tortured, euthanized, and thrown away. Add your signature to the petition below and tell the University of Wisconsin-Madison to stop supporting any primate experimentation program that violates the USDA's guidelines.

• PETA, (15 September 2020), "Workers Pry Baby Monkeys Away From Their Mothers, Electroshock Penises, and More in Deranged Lab."
• Noah Phillips, Wisconsin Watch (31 July 2014), "University of Wisconsin to reprise controversial monkey studies."
• PETA, (16 September 2020), "Feds Investigating Wisconsin Primate Laboratory Following Secret PETA Video."
• David Wahlberg, Wisconsin State Journal (16 September 2020), "PETA alleges more animal research violations at UW-Madison."