Saturday, December 5, 2009

PETA protests target radiation testing

Dave Wedge
Boston Herald

While about two dozen animal rights supporters gathered outside McLean Hospital in Belmont this morning to protest controversial radiation tests on monkeys, researchers defended the testing as adhering to government guidelines.

Wearing T-shirts and holding signs, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals members voiced their opposition to a NASA project that will zap about 20 squirrel monkeys with radiation. The primates will be hit with radiation doses equivalent to three years of space travel at a New York facility and then will be shipped to McLean to live under the watch of Harvard Medical School researchers.

PETA officials say the testing is cruel because it could lead to cancer, premature aging and cognitive damage in the monkeys. Six PETA protesters donned monkey masks and sat in cages during the peaceful protest.

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