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The University of Washington is apparently dead set on fostering workplace incompetence, recently promoting yet another experimenter with a bloodstained résumé to oversee its failing Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC).
First, the center hired Michelle Basso, a disgraced experimenter with a pockmarked career of cruelty. But PETA sounded the alarm, and she was ousted as director.
Now Deborah Fuller is the primate prison’s new warden. She’s another experimenter who has inexplicably managed to crawl to the top of WaNPRC’s steaming pile of monkey misery.
Let’s review her qualifications.
Experienced in Violence
Fuller has killed hundreds of monkeys since she arrived at the University of Washington 14 years ago. In May 2024, her laboratory at WaNPRC imprisoned its latest victims: 39 monkeys being used in cruel, misleading, and deadly experiments. Those used in her tests are riddled with signs of extreme stress, according to laboratory reports obtained by PETA. Their hair is falling out, and they’re missing fingertips, toes, and ears.
Public records reveal that after the monkeys Fuller torments in experiments die or are killed, she consistently refuses to allow the part of the necropsy (animal autopsy) that would indicate if any unintended infectious diseases were present to be carried out. This missing information should be required for every facility with hundreds of these animals, especially when they’re known to be riddled with unintended infections.
Proficient at Bringing Disease Into the Workplace
Fuller has succeeded in simultaneously risking public health and compromising scientific integrity by using diseased monkeys in her laboratory.
In one of her experiments, public records show that she used newly imported monkeys from the island nation of Mauritius who were carrying bacteria and parasites. The sick animals developed bloody, mucoid diarrhea within a few weeks of arrival at WaNPRC, and although these unintended pathogens would impact the results of Fuller’s experiments, she proceeded to use these suffering primates.
Fuller doesn’t seem to care where she gets monkeys for her experiments or whether they’re healthy, disease-free, or species-appropriate. Internal communications obtained by PETA through public records requests make it clear that she wants the cheapest monkeys she can get her hands on. Physically and psychologically broken, infected with Valley fever—it doesn’t appear to matter as long as she can get them from WaNPRC’s list of victims available at a discount. She claims that her experiments using these animals will lead to the discovery and development of vaccines and therapies for HIV and emerging viral diseases, but any decent scientist knows that using diseased, distressed monkeys is not how one does reproducible, translatable science. Perhaps she also knows this, and that’s why she consistently fails to acknowledge in her published papers that she has used monkeys whose immune systems are compromised or fighting some other unintended infection, which could affect her findings.
Fuller vs. Fact
A University of Washington official claimed at a public meeting that experiments on monkeys conducted in Fuller’s laboratory were directly responsible for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.
But that was a bald-faced lie.
Fuller’s laboratory had nothing to do with developing Moderna’s successful COVID-19 vaccine. Although the official apparently never publicly retracted her claim, she admitted privately that Fuller’s laboratory hadn’t been involved in work on the vaccine.
‘R’ Is for Remiss
In her first blog post as WaNPRC director, Fuller announced her plan to “support a 3Rs culture: Respect, Restraint, Responsibility.”
Those are just random words starting with “R” that she pieced together.
The actual “3Rs” are universally touted by the University of Washington and the scientific community and relate to animals used in experimentation: replacement, reduction, and refinement.
Since Fuller is making up her own 3Rs, she should consider removal, resignation, and retirement.
Shoddy Science Payday
As a cofounder of the biotech company Orlance, Fuller is invested in the continuation and expansion of the animal experimentation industry. The company boasts $9.6 million in taxpayer-funded grants from the National Institutes of Health and tests its experimental drugs on monkeys.
Fuller is also a scientific advisor and consultant for HDT Bio, a company that commercializes vaccine technology. Her own HIV experiments have killed countless monkeys and have consistently failed to produce a vaccine that could be tested in humans.
What You Can Do
The WaNPRC should shut down permanently instead of hiring another director to drive it further into disaster.
Please TAKE ACTION by calling for the immediate closure of the WaNPRC and the release of the monkeys imprisoned there to reputable sanctuaries, where they could enjoy their lives in safety and with the dignity they deserve:
Shut Down the WaNPRC
