PETA protest against NASA's plans to irradiate Squirrel monkeys

NASA plans to to continue with plans to subject squirrel monkeys to gamma-ray radiation to learn how long space trips might affect humans.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has obtained documents discussing a controversial NASA-funded project that would expose squirrel monkeys to radiation.

PETA obtained the documents, which include a draft "Decision regarding the disposition of the NSRL Proposal N-249," through a Freedom of Information Act request; however, the documents do not resolve the future of the space radiation experiment, which would take place at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Citing an exemption under the federal law, the U.S. Department of Energy redacted essentially all of the content of the emails and the draft decision it forwarded to PETA.

A statement on PETA's website read: "Unfortunately, before the government sent us these documents, it blacked out Brookhaven's decision, so we don't know if plans to hurt these animals are moving forward or not."

A decision is pending, a spokesman for Brookhaven National Laboratory reported but the time frame was not available.

Full story on PETA's website

April Evans, a NASA aerospace engineer working on the International Space Station as a team lead, has quit her job over NASA's decision to irradiate non-human primates after 30 peaceful years without any space-related experiments on monkeys.

Evans, a NASA Space Flight Awareness Honoree, wrote to Brookhaven director Samuel Aronson, explaining, "After much deliberation, I resigned from NASA because I could not support the scientific justification for this monkey radiobiology experiment."

In the letter, Evans also encouraged the agency to develop better space radiation shielding to protect astronauts—instead of tormenting animals.

It’s also interesting to know that although NASA defends its use of radiation on primates, the European Space Agency does not conduct research on these creatures and has no plans or interest to.

In a letter dated April 1 formally stating the position of the European agency, director Jean-Jacques Dordain said, “there is absolutely no research interest or planning for experiments with primates.”