NARN Blog

Despite the rainy weather, the Demo to Oppose Primate Research at the UW went forward as planned on Saturday. Armed with 5 signs and 2 banners, I got to the corner of NE Pacific and Montlake just before 11am. I knew that the rain might keep some protesters away, so I found a spot just off of the sidewalk that gave me a good view of people walking by, and made me visible to passersby. While I waited for the other activists to arrive, I held a sign that read “Cruelty is Criminal” above a picture of a monkey looking through cage bars. Plenty of people walking by looked at my sign, and I couldn’t help but think they must have thought it was strange that I was the only one standing there with a sign.

After 15 minutes or so passed, no other activists showed up to join me, and I thought about leaving, but a middle aged man came up to me and said “I support what you are standing up for”. This comment pleasantly surprised me, and the rain had tapered off, so I decided to stick it out. Before too long, another man - a guy some might refer to as looking like a stereotypical football fan - approached me and said that he was glad that I was out there. I had been out there by myself for 30 minutes and the only reactions I had gotten so far were positive ones.

By the time 12:20 rolled around, I had distributed numerous leaflets, had a woman tell me that she worked near the UW’s Primate Research facility on Western, and my sign had been seen by hundreds of people. I truly felt that my time had been well spent, and despite the low turnout for the demo, it had been effective. One person can in fact make a difference.

I’ll be out there for the next UW Husky Football home game, to greet attendees with my sign and information about the horrible research that goes on behind closed doors at the UW. I hope this time others will be able to join me.

Brave souls withstood the wind and cold to stand up for tortured animals in front of UW’s Regional Primate Research Center at 3010 Western Ave, across from the Olympic Sculpture Park downtown. 

UW’s Primate Research Center plays a major part in the torture and killing of primates every year. UW researchers have been confirmed in committing widespread violations of animal protection regulations.

These violations involve studies in which experimenters cut off the tops of monkeys’ skulls, insert electrodes into their brains, and implant wire coils in their eyes. The monkeys are then restrained in experimentation chairs, with their heads bolted in place so that they can’t move while experimenters track their eye movements.

They are kept hungry or thirsty much of the time so that they’ll comply during tests to get a sip of water or a bite of food.

Our protests on 10/18, 11/8 & 11/15/08 seemed more like parties, with such great folks who came out to show people what the University of Washington is doing to baby monkeys in the name of curiosity.

We realized that with the Husky football homegames there’d be tons of people walking and driving right by UW’s Infant Primate Research Facility at the Magnuson Health Sciences Center.

With some of us coming all the way from Canada, Olympia, Lake Stevens, Renton and across the Montlake bridge, we gathered at the corner of NE Pacific St & Montlake Blvd. Holding signs depicting UW’s abuse of primates, we were the voices for sentient beings imprisoned in experimenters’ cages. As Jessica put it, “Our protest rocked!”

Afterward we all went out for delicious vegan food at Hillside Quickies, talking while we ate and laughing about Saturday Night Live, ‘67 Mustangs, being a vegetarian in the Army in Iraq, and various nonsense and serious subjects alike. Who knew protesting animal cruelty could be this much fun? As one of us said of the day, “It was awesome meeting all of you guys and I had a blast for my first animal rights protest!”

UW is the most federally-funded animal research facility in the country, receiving over $270 million last year from NIH. The university holds captive over 16,000 animals, including 3,000 primates.

At the Primate Center, UW researchers cut holes into macaque monkeys’ skulls. Recording cylinders are attached so that electrodes may be fed directly into the brain. The monkeys are then confined to restraint chairs and forced to perform behavioral experiments. Juice or water is often used as a reward in these experiments. To make the experiments more effective the primates are deprived of fluids except when they are performing the experiments.

These experiments have been going on for decades with no conclusive results. In addition, these projects are very similar to one another, potentially duplicating experimental procedures.

On March 8, 2008, we all came out at lunchtime to bring attention to the atrocities the University of Washington carries out on captive monkeys.

Yep, that’s it.