PETA Asks Kennedy Space Center to Open Chimpanzee Empathy Museum

Memorial for Chimpanzees Abused in Early Space Program Would Bolster Legislative Effort to Have Their Kin Released From U.S. Labs Today

Cape Canaveral, Fla. — Prompted by reports that the Kennedy Space Center’s budget issues have led the center to rent unused parts of its compound, PETA sent a letter today to Robert Cabana, director of the space center, to ask for permission to turn an unused shuttle hangar or other building into a museum and memorial for the chimpanzees who were abused and killed in violent crash tests and terrifying space flights by the space program.

“PETA’s exhibit will show that while NASA has stopped blasting terrified chimpanzees into space and crippling them in crash tests, chimpanzees are still tormented in laboratories–and that cannot go on,” says PETA Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. “With Congress considering a bill to ban experiments on these intelligent and social animals, it’s the perfect time for an exhibit about what we have done to our closest primate relatives.”

As PETA explains in its letter, the Chimpanzee Empathy Museum would highlight how many relatives of the space program’s chimpanzees are still locked up in laboratories across the country. The museum would also urge visitors to call their legislators in support of the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act, which is backed by more than 160 senators and representatives as well as actors Woody Harrelson, Ellen DeGeneres, and Alec Baldwin. The act would permanently end the use of chimpanzees and all other great apes in invasive experiments, retire federally owned apes to sanctuaries, and save taxpayers millions of dollars a year.

PETA’s letter to Kennedy Space Center Director Robert Cabana is available here. For more information, please visit PETA.org or click here.