Attendees of the National Institute of Mental Health’s (NIMH) 75th anniversary symposium will be met with a shocking sight on the steps of the National Archives Museum on Monday: a gigantic inflatable spider accompanied by dozens of PETA supporters, who will demand an end to cruel taxpayer-funded tests on monkeys conducted by government experimenters including Elisabeth Murray.

Where:     In front of the National Archives Museum, 701 Constitution Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C.

When:     Monday, March 18, 12 noon

In Murray’s “monkey fright” experiments, she cuts into monkeys’ heads, saws off part of their skulls, and suctions out a portion of their brain or partially destroys it with toxic chemical injections. She then frightens the monkeys with realistic-looking fake spiders and snakes. In other experiments, she implants thick titanium posts in their skulls. She cages monkeys alone in her laboratory for years or even more than a decade, condemning them to social isolation that causes profound psychological and physiological distress. When she’s finally finished tormenting them, she kills them. Despite having failed to produce even one treatment or cure for humans, she has received more than $50 million in taxpayer funding since 1998.

“For decades, a government experimenter has mutilated monkeys’ brains, then purposely terrified them in pointless tests that do nothing to advance human health,” says PETA neuroscientist Dr. Katherine Roe. “PETA is calling on NIMH to stop pouring taxpayers’ money into monkey torment and commit to funding ethical, effective, animal-free research instead.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness.

For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

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