FOIA Lawsuit Results in End to Cruel Experiments and Freedom for 26 Monkeys

After a lawsuit brought by my office on behalf of the White Coat Waste Project, the Food & Drug Administration has ended cruel nicotine experiments on young monkeys and committed to sending the 26 monkeys used in the experiments to sanctuaries. The experiments involved forcing young squirrel monkeys into vests that pump them full of nicotine and putting them into a metal box, where the monkeys could hit a lever to give themselves a dose of the drug.

After White Coat Waste found a short description of experiments where the FDA addicted young monkeys to nicotine, they filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking details and video of the experiments. When FDA only handed over a few pages of records, we sued.

After growing public pressure, today the agency provided all of the withheld videos of the experiments, announced that it was ending the study, and pledged to house all 26 of the monkeys at primate sanctuaries. The Washington Post and New York Times have additional coverage.