The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has tried to conceal the suffering in its laboratories before, but in attempting to silence the public, it has reached a new low. After discovering that NIH and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have been using keyword filters to block comments potentially critical of the agenciesâ support of cruel experiments on animalsâeither funded or conducted by NIHâPETA is suing them for violating the First Amendment.
PETA Asks NIH: âWhy So Secretive?â
PETAâalong with the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and the Animal Legal Defense Fundâfiled the lawsuit on behalf of animal rights advocates, including PETA and two other individuals, whose comments condemning archaic experiments on monkeys were blocked from appearing on at least one of the agencyâs social media pages. Through a Freedom of Information Act request, we found out just how far NIH will go to suppress legitimate criticism. Among other numerous words and phrases associated with animal rights, NIHâs keyword filters block âanimal(s),â âchimpanzee(s),â âmonkey(s),â âcats,â âmouse,â âexperiment,â âtesting,â âPETA,â âtorture,â and ârevolting.â The HHS also blocks all comments containing âmonkeyâ from appearing on its social media pages.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include a former animal lab technician turned animal advocate and an engineer at a digital health company. In other words, NIH isnât just suppressing criticism of its barbaric tests on animalsâitâs potentially stifling discourse on medical research, science, and bioethics.
NIH Keeps Trying to Hide the Truth
Earlier this year, PETA sued NIH for repeatedly failing to respond to our requests to release documents on taxpayer-funded experiments conducted in its laboratoriesâincluding Elisabeth Murrayâs notorious âmonkey frightâ tests, in which she cuts into monkeysâ heads, saws off a portion of their skulls, and then injects toxins into their brains to inflict traumatic brain damage before frightening them with realistic-looking rubber spiders and snakes.
Government agencies should not be suppressing the publicâs right to speak up about their practices. Instead of trying to hide from criticism, NIH should simply end these barbaric experiments. Join PETA in calling for the agency to shut down Murrayâs laboratory:
Urge NIH to Shut Down Elisabeth Murrayâs Monkey Terror Lab
Source: Peta.org