Sometimes, PETA goes overboard. Their intense fight against any and all forms of "animal cruelty" (in quotes because their version of cruelty doesn't always line up with mine) can often alienate supporters and make them out to look like…well, an intense organization.
But once again their intense love for all animal life has won them a victory: NASA has recently announced that they are removing an experiment "from lab consideration" that would have involved exposing a few squirrel monkeys to radiation in order to hypothesize how extended spaceflight would effect humans.
"Well, folks, you did it." A newly released PETA statement begins. "After scores of protests and more than 100,000 letters, phone calls, and e-mails from PETA supporters ... the space agency has quietly called off plans to conduct cruel radiation experiments on monkeys."
PETA argued that the experiment was not only cruel, but that the gap between squirrel monkeys and humans is too wide to truly give an accurate account the type of radiation exposure humans would endure during a supposed 3 year spaceflight.
NASA isn't admitting that they cancelled the project completely, and are commenting very little on the story themselves, but if you take PETA's word for it, it looks like those 27 squirrel monkeys can rest easy tonight.
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