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Protect Monkeys From Having Screws Drilled Into Their Brains

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Monkeys reportedly suffered through skull implants, brain injuries, infections, and delayed care at the University of Minnesota. Help call for an end to this cruelty.

Protect Monkeys From Having Screws Drilled Into Their Brains

Monkeys at the University of Minnesota have reportedly endured extreme pain during invasive brain experiments that involved drilling into their skulls, implanting hardware, and accessing their brains over long periods of time.1 One rhesus macaque, Everett, allegedly showed alarming neurological symptoms after screws were driven so deep into his skull that they pierced his brain.1

Serious Injuries And Delayed Care Raise Deep Concern

Reports describe more than one monkey suffering severe trauma. Another monkey reportedly endured repeated surgeries after a headpost tore from his skull. A monkey named Bilbo was allegedly injured during surgery, later suffered infection, and at one point was left with exposed brain tissue after implanted equipment failed.2 These accounts point to a pattern of suffering, not an isolated mistake.1

Oversight Failed While Monkeys Paid The Price

According to the reporting, staff concerns were ignored, records were allegedly deleted, and action came too late for animals already in distress.1 Federal funding also helped support some of this work, raising even more questions about accountability and ethics.3

The University Must Act Now

The University of Minnesota should end these monkey experiments, remove Jan Zimmermann from any role involving animal experimentation, and commit to modern research methods that do not depend on prolonged animal suffering.1,2

Monkeys should not be forced to suffer through drilled skulls, implanted hardware, and devastating injuries in the name of research. Sign the petition now.

More on this issue:

  1. PETA, PETA (24 March 2026), "20 Screws Driven Into Monkey’s Brain and Other Horrors at UMN, PETA Reveals."
  2. Staff, PETA Headlines (2026), "Monkeys Have Screws Drilled Into Their Brains at the University of Minnesota."
  3. Frank Bergman, National File (2026), "NIH Funds Toxic Brain Injection Monkey Experiments Holes Drilled Into Skulls Devices Implanted Into Brains Report."

The Petition

To the University of Minnesota Leadership,

I am writing to urge the University of Minnesota to take immediate action to protect monkeys from invasive brain experiments that have reportedly caused severe pain, traumatic injuries, repeated surgeries, and prolonged suffering.

The accounts that have emerged from inside the university are deeply disturbing. They describe monkeys subjected to skull drilling, implanted headposts and chambers, direct brain access, infections, neurological distress, and delayed intervention when serious complications appeared. These were not minor concerns. They were signs of profound suffering in living, feeling animals who had no choice in what was done to them.

No institution committed to ethics, research integrity, and humane treatment should allow this kind of harm to continue. When monkeys show signs of pain, confusion, injury, infection, or neurological damage, the response must be swift and compassionate. It should never depend on internal pressure, threats of escalation, or outside exposure.

I urge the University of Minnesota to immediately end monkey experiments overseen by Jan Zimmermann, remove him from any future role involving animal experimentation, and conduct a full independent review of the care, procedures, and oversight failures described in these reports. The university should also move away from invasive primate experimentation and invest in modern, human-relevant, synthetic or computer-based research methods that do not depend on prolonged animal suffering.

The university has the power to set a higher standard. It can choose transparency over secrecy, compassion over institutional protection, and better science over repeated harm. Monkeys should not endure drilled skulls, implanted devices, repeated surgeries, or untreated complications in a laboratory environment that claims to serve the public good.

Please act now to stop these experiments, protect the animals still at risk, and ensure that no more monkeys are forced to suffer in this way.

These actions will ensure a better future for all.

Sincerely,

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