Written by Jeff Mackey
Like many of you, we were appalled by photos that have surfaced showing a visibly terrified monkey crudely strapped into a
restraint device in which he was reportedly launched into space by the Iranian Space
Agency (ISA). Back in 2011, our friends at PETA U.K. urged agency head Dr. Hamid Fazeli to ground the misguided mission, pointing out that
nonhuman primates are no longer sent into space by the American or European
It appears that Iran is repeating the wasteful and cruel
mistakes that marked the darkest days of the space race. Monkeys are smart and
sensitive animals who not only are traumatized by the violence and noise of a
launch and landing but also suffer when caged in a laboratory before and after
a flight—if they survive.
the use of primates in space radiation experiments in the early 1990s, following
protests by PETA.
In 2010, NASA's plans to restart the program were canceled after PETA and others voiced strong ethical and scientific objections to the
Similarly, the European Space Agency (ESA) has a very active
space exploration program and has publicly stated that it "declines any interest in monkey research and does not consider
any need or use for such results." The ESA instead employs modern
technology such as state-of-the-art simulators to assess health risks for
Whether it happens in Iran or Ireland, in an underground
laboratory or in outer space, cruelly exploiting animals for specious science is indefensible. We've reached out to the ISA once again to ask it to stop shooting
monkeys into space. Learn how you can help stop experimentation on all animals.
you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to
an animal, please click
here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the
animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local
police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA
immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question: Why should animals have rights? Read more.