Student activists at the University of California–Davis (UC-Davis) are waging a revolt against human supremacy and demanding that the school shut down its California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC), where thousands of monkeys are imprisoned and routinely subjected to useless and painful experimentation—and the students are getting results.

UC-Davis SOS members have also made use of university media to get the message out about the horrors that monkeys endure at the CNPRC. In an impassioned letter published in The California Aggie, the UC-Davis student newspaper, members of SOS laid out plainly why the CNPRC must be shut down:

Experimenters have cut open monkeys’ skulls and severed part of their spinal cords—even though these kinds of experiments haven’t been useful for humans. They tear terrified babies away from their mothers to study the impact of early-life stress on the regulation of hormones. Macaques are purposely kept thirsty to compel them to comply with experimenters in exchange for a few drops of water or juice. And that is just a small fraction of the horror that goes on at the CNPRC.

Nature Neuroscience

SOS activists were also successful in pressuring the student senate to pass an important resolution that not only calls for the closure of the CNPRC but also formally recognizes animals as sentient.

In support of its position, the lengthy and detailed resolution ticks off a laundry list of horrible violations of public trust as well as numerous violations of animal welfare laws and the CNPRC’s abundant lack of transparency. The strongly worded, five-page resolution was passed by a unanimous vote in April 2022.

“The Associated Students of the University of California, urges the university to explore modern, alternative research methods and follow the precedent set forth by other world-renowned research institutions by promptly eliminating the use of non-human animal testing at the CNPRC,” the resolution says.

Despite decades of promises, billions of dollars, and tens of thousands of dead monkeys, the CNPRC and the country’s other six national primate research centers have failed to deliver effective vaccines against HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, and other diseases. In 2015, Harvard University shut down the New England Primate Research Center after controversies involving systemic neglect and mistreatment of monkeys—and students are calling on UC-Davis to follow suit.

Tell the University’s Chancellor to Shut This Lab Down Now!