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.”

Stop NASA's Plans to Expose Monkeys to Radiation | PETA.org

Stop NASA's Plans to Expose Monkeys to Radiation PETA.org

For many people, NASA represents cutting-edge science and grandiose achievements like sending a human to the moon. Unfortunately, future NASA plans are not so inspiring.

NASA has announced that it plans to fund a $1.75 million project in which up to 30 squirrel monkeys will be exposed to a large, harmful dose of radiation and then be locked in steel cages without any companionship.

They will be forced to endure years of behavioural tests to measure the inevitable devastation that the radiation causes to their brains and bodies, which would likely include brain damage, skin inflammation, blindness, various types of cancer, including brain tumors, and premature death.

Because of drastic biological differences between species, radiation experiments on monkeys won't tell scientists anything about how astronauts will react to deep space. Luckily, modern in vitro and clinical research methods are available and can be used to study the affects of space radiation on the human body.

In the past, NASA has halted plans to use monkeys in space experiments when the public spoke out against this cruelty, and animals need your support once again. Please contact NASA officials and politely ask them to permanently halt plans to fund radiation experiments using monkeys and to instead direct their funds to modern and humane methods of scientific inquiry.