For Fast Launch:
December 5, 2022
Contact:
Amanda Hays 202-483-7382
Davis, Calif. – For organizing a provocative protest in opposition to the infamous California Nationwide Primate Analysis Heart (CNPRC) on the College of California (UC)–Davis, the place 1000’s of monkeys are contaminated with lethal viruses, inflicted with painful illnesses, psychologically traumatized, and killed in merciless experiments, the varsity’s College students Opposing Speciesism (SOS) hub has gained PETA’s 2022 Libby Award for SOS Motion of the Yr.
SOS is a PETA-backed, youth-led revolt in opposition to speciesism, the archaic perception that different animals are inferior and exist solely for people to take advantage of. “Libby” is brief for “liberation”—as in “animal liberation”—and the awards, from PETA’s youth division, acknowledge the people, manufacturers, and merchandise that go above and past for animals.
Throughout their impassioned protest, UC-Davis college students wore monkey masks and white laboratory uniforms as they caged themselves, splashed themselves with “blood,” lay “useless” on tarps, and marched by means of campus demanding that the college shut down the CNPRC, finish its merciless experiments on monkeys, and change them with trendy, non-animal analysis strategies.
“As soon as these UC-Davis college students realized that the CNPRC imprisons monkeys and cuts open their skulls in ineffective experiments, they had been decided to finish this abuse,” says PETA Senior Director Rachelle Owen. “PETA is celebrating these college students’ creativity in rallying their friends to demand the closure of this merciless laboratory.”
Kara Lengthy, who leads the SOS hub, gained PETA’s Hero to Animals Award earlier this 12 months. Lengthy teamed up with PETA to start out a petition now signed by greater than 62,600 individuals calling on UC-Davis to cease experimenting on animals. She and different SOS members additionally organized a number of protests in opposition to speciesism, persuaded the scholar senate to move a decision condemning the CNPRC’s many animal welfare violations, and carried out teach-ins to coach their friends concerning the cruelty monkeys endure in laboratories.
“All animals should be handled with respect, which is why we’re calling on UC-Davis to cease these merciless experiments and change outdated monkey checks with trendy, non-animal analysis strategies,” says Lengthy. “The SOS members at UC-Davis will proceed to push campus leaders to cease the torment contained in the CNPRC, and the monkeys trapped inside its partitions will all the time have us as allies.”
SOS shares PETA’s motto: “Animals will not be ours to experiment on, eat, put on, use for leisure, or abuse in another method.” For extra info, please go to SOS.PETA.org or observe SOS on Instagram.