Dear Editor:

Thank you for highlighting PETA’s (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) campaign against menopause experiments on marmosets at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Please know that PETA did meet with UMass officials in good faith before launching its campaign, but, as revealed in public records, the university’s administrators conspired to slam the door on further discussions.

Torturing marmosets to study menopause is a grotesque misuse of taxpayer funds and an absurd model with no relevance to human health. Despite Agnes Lacreuse’s portrayal of her experiments as “behavioral,” the reality for the fragile marmosets she uses is far bleaker. These animals are confined to barren cages bearing no resemblance to their rainforest homes, subjected to invasive procedures and ultimately killed. They endure profound physical and psychological distress in experiments that serve no purpose beyond advancing Lacreuse’s career. Lacreuse claims to “love” the marmosets in her laboratory — but if this is her version of love, I’m grateful she doesn’t love me.

While Lacreuse welcomed Daily Collegian reporters for a white-glove tour—allowing them to feed marshmallows to the marmosets—we wonder if she would grant similar access to witness the darker aspects of her work. Would she permit students to observe as she drills into the monkeys’ skulls to implant electrodes? Or as she kills them prematurely to extract data for her papers?

Lacreuse’s assertion that PETA targets her because she is a woman is a thinly veiled attempt to distract attention from the ethical concerns surrounding her experiments. A brief internet search would uncover numerous white male experimenters whose laboratory cruelty has been the focus of PETA campaigns: Edward Taub, Thomas Gennarelli, John Orem, George Billman, Stephen Suomi, Joe Kornegay, Ned Kalin, Michael Platt, Gerald Pepe, Daniel Traber and many others.

Our campaigns are rooted in science and ethics. Lacreuse’s work is being called out not because of who she is but because of the indefensible suffering her experiments cause. PETA is grateful to students and the Western Massachusetts Animal Rights Advocates for joining us, as well as to the nearly 150,000 people who have emailed UMass to call for the lab’s closure.

Sincerely,

Alka Chandna