Act

Putting a Mad Scientist Out of Business

The NEAVS Team, July 1, 2019

When we exposed monkey torture funded by millions of your tax dollars, you took swift action.

The report from the University of Florida sounded like a horror movie.

A mad scientist restrains helpless monkeys by their necks and injects them with nicotine and other addictive drugs. He forces the monkeys’ small feet into “shoes” custom made for torturing monkeys—wired with electrodes. He drives electric current through the monkeys’ bodies every ten seconds. This horror show is happening now. It’s legal. It’s funded by your tax dollars.

Over the last ten years, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has given $3.4 million to a researcher named Lance McMahon for these cruel and even deadly experiments.

Monkeys seated in chairs and placed in…chambers equipped with two levers and two lights, one positioned above each lever. Their feet placed in shoes containing brass electrodes to which a brief electric stimulus could be delivered from an a.c. generator.

One monkey endured 270 electric shock and drug sessions. Another was accidentally drugged to death. We’ve never seen such callous disregard for the suffering of animals.

We knew something had to be done and fast—before another monkey suffers for no good reason. And you answered our call.

Thank you for taking action to throw the cage doors open and put this mad scientist and his lab out of business.

Since April, when we broke the story of these nicotine torture tests, more than 33,500 animal lovers have taken action to demand the end of funding for these experiments.

Milena was one of them.

“This experiment is unreliable research, telling us nothing new regarding nicotine that we don’t already know,” says Milena, an animal activist who joined a grassroots protest at the University of Florida organized by NEAVS. “It’s just cruel that they are injecting monkeys and then electrocuting them…There is just no reason we need to be doing this. That’s why I want to stop these experiments.”

Drew believes in the power of collective action.

“If we empathize with these animals and put ourselves in their shoes, would we want these experiments happening to us?” A scientist who believes animals deserve rights, Drew is glad …“I saw activists I have never seen or met before…That was cool. NEAVS really activated the community here.”

Raising his voice for animals, Bob says what we’re all thinking.

“I feel bad about [animal experiments]. I would feel worse if I did nothing to stop them.”

While it’s too late to have your voice heard on this issue it’s not too late to help animals suffering in labs. Visit our animal advocacy page and lend you voice to helpless animals trapped in labs. Thank you!