The Silver Springs Monkey case was the one that put PETA on the map as an activist group and is considered a major cornerstone in Animal Rights Legislation. All of it began when Alex Pacheco, one of the founders of PETA, applied for a job at the Institute for Behavioral Research (IBR). While working there, undercover, he found that the head researcher at the IBR, Edward Taub, had been performing cruel experiments on macaques. This was all taking place in Silver Springs, Maryland, just miles from Washington D.C. and the National Institutes of Health.
Pacheco took the time to document the conditions of the test subjects and then proceeded to distribute the information to authorities. The monkeys were placed in steel restraints and then underwent deafferentation, a process in which the nerves on the spinal cord would be cut in order to cause loss of movement in limbs. Taub, the head researcher, would then administer electric shocks, food, and light deprivation in an effort to make the monkeys regain use of their limbs. Taub even went as far as to remove a fetus from the mother, deafferentiate it, and then have it returned to be born with no use of its body.
In the trials, Taub managed to escape any lasting justice for his actions, receiving only a $500 fine for inadequate veterinary care. In response to this event, the 1985 Animal Welfare Act was introduced and was the first major step to animal treatment reform in the U.S.
Pacheco took the time to document the conditions of the test subjects and then proceeded to distribute the information to authorities. The monkeys were placed in steel restraints and then underwent deafferentation, a process in which the nerves on the spinal cord would be cut in order to cause loss of movement in limbs. Taub, the head researcher, would then administer electric shocks, food, and light deprivation in an effort to make the monkeys regain use of their limbs. Taub even went as far as to remove a fetus from the mother, deafferentiate it, and then have it returned to be born with no use of its body.
In the trials, Taub managed to escape any lasting justice for his actions, receiving only a $500 fine for inadequate veterinary care. In response to this event, the 1985 Animal Welfare Act was introduced and was the first major step to animal treatment reform in the U.S.