Holes Drilled Into Monkeys’ Heads in British Laboratories
Sensitive, intelligent monkeys are born and bred in Britain so that experimenters can perform twisted procedures on live animals. National statistics published by the Home Office have confirmed that in 2022, 63 marmosets and tamarins were used in 72 horrific experiments in England.
Academic papers published within the last three years reveal the kind of experiments that take place out of public view in laboratories.
Holes Drilled Into Marmosets’ Skulls
Holes were drilled into marmosets’ heads and tubes were held in place using screws and dental glue so that drugs or viruses could be injected directly into the brain. Probes were also implanted into their hearts to remotely measure blood pressure.
Tests to Induce Stress and Anxiety
Monkeys can feel pain, fear, and stress, just like humans, yet they’re denied the same compassion. To evaluate their behavioural responses and brain activity, experimenters induced extreme anxiety in marmosets using the following diabolical methods:
Taunted With Empty Food Bowls
Several marmosets were kept on a restricted diet and subsequently taunted by experimenters who showed them empty food bowls and marshmallows to further their anxiety and confusion.
Masked Humans Scared Frightened Animals
In the human intruder test, used to cause distress, marmosets were separated from their cage mates and forced to face an unfamiliar intruder wearing different latex masks. The intruder – who imposed on the animals’ personal space by standing at a mere 40 cm distance – maintained eye contact with the marmoset for a petrifying 2 minutes.
While the human intruder test was being conducted, microphones recorded the gut-wrenching screams of the terrified marmosets. During the experiment, two of the animals died unexpectedly.
Scared With Rubber Snakes
Marmosets were also frightened with a rubber snake and exposed to darkness to simulate a stressful environment. The result was that the animals became scared of any stimuli they were exposed to following the terrifying experience.
Tense Marmosets Unable to Escape Deafening Sounds
Experimenters played extremely loud auditory cues through speakers, including white noise and alarms, to marmosets who were trapped in small plastic boxes. The noise started at a level akin to a vacuum cleaner or hair dryer (70 dB) before increasing to a sound that is comparable to the deafening roar of a motorcycle or lawnmower (85 dB) and subsequently blaring as loud as a siren (120 dB). The animals became watchful and tense, adopting a vigilant posture. A heartbreaking video showing the marmosets’ suffering during this cruel experiment is available here.
Life in a Cramped Laboratory Cage
Marmosets originate from Brazil and in nature live in troops with a home range the size of roughly five professional football pitches. In the experiments described above, they were kept in cramped, barren cages around the size of a broom cupboard and denied everything that is natural and important to them, such as the opportunity to swing from trees, play with their young, or smell fresh air. If they survive these sadistic tests, they’re usually killed and their bodies are dissected.
A marmoset is confined at a UMass lab in this image obtained by PETA US through a Massachusetts Public Records Law request.
Unreliable Experiments
Experimenting on animals is a shocking and crude practice that should be relegated to the history books. No animal, whether a monkey, dog, mouse – or any other living, feeling being – deserves to be locked in a small cage inside a laboratory and subjected to abuse and suffering that would be illegal if it took place elsewhere.
The US National Institutes of Health reports that a “novel drug can take 10 to 15 years and more than $2 billion to develop, and about 95 percent of human studies fail”. Clearly there is a problem with the current paradigm for developing and testing drugs and getting them to market, and experiments on animals have been identified as one of the contributing factors.
Major scientific breakthroughs relating to diseases such as diabetes and breast cancer have relied on studies of human disease in patients – they would not have been possible using experiments on animals.
It’s time experimenters stopped tormenting animals and started focusing on modern, human-relevant testing methods.
How You Can Help Marmosets
Animals are abused in sadistic experiments because UK law allows it. Please help change this by urging the government to ban the use of animals in experiments:
