A lawsuit filed Monday by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals aims to compel the University of Massachusetts Amherst to release videos and other records of experiments conducted on marmosets by university researchers.

The lawsuit, filed in a Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston, is the latest turn in a years-long struggle between PETA and UMass over the use of animal subjects in university research. PETA has said that UMass researchers perform experiments that mistreat animals and house creatures, including marmoset monkeys and hamsters, in cramped and inhumane conditions. The university maintains that the animal welfare organization’s assertions misrepresent its laboratories and research.

PETA said Monday that it has filed three public records requests in the last 16 months, but that UMass has not produced appropriate materials as mandated by state records law. The organization is asking a judge to order UMass to turn over the requested records.

The focus of PETA’s inquiry are experiments that UMass said aim to better understand Alzheimer’s disease by studying marmosets.

The monkeys’ short lifespans — about a decade — and cognitive decline with age allow researchers to track brain function over a manageable timeline, compared to the decades it would take to study a human across their whole life.

UMass’ experiments gauge cognitive functions in the marmosets by asking them to identify shapes and odors and solve tests using fine motor skills. The researchers also track the monkeys’ sleep, according to an informational webpage organized by lead UMass researcher Dr. Agnès Lacreuse.

PETA has levied an assortment of accusations against UMass concerning the research — that experimenters “drill into [marmosets] skulls and implant electrodes,” that they “cut out [monkeys] ovaries and heat the animals with hand warmers” and that they keep monkeys in solitary confinement.

UMass and Lacreuse dispute each of these complaints.

The researchers implant a “small telemeter” on the monkeys’ heads, just under the skin, to record brain activity, Lacreuse said. The surgery is conducted by a licensed veterinarian, she said, and allows researchers to track monkeys’ sleep without disturbing them.

Lacreuse’s website acknowledged neutering and spaying the animals, which for female marmosets involves removing their ovaries. The process is the same as with a house cat or pet dog, Lacreuse said, and the animals are given appropriate anesthetics and medications during the surgery conducted by a veterinarian.

The monkeys are also heated with hand warmers to simulate the symptoms of menopause, a process they do not go through naturally. While PETA has questioned the necessity and humanity of the experiment, Lacreuse said that understanding marmosets’ ability to regulate their body temperature could prove key to understanding the symptoms of menopause, including hot flashes.

Part of the research involves studying women’s health in order to understand why two-thirds of Alzheimer’s cases are in women, Lacreuse said.

PETA has challenged the research for more than a year and has sought publicly-available records, including videos, of the experiments.

UMass, in denying to release portions of the records, claimed some of the experiments constituted proprietary information the university was entitled to protect. The school also said releasing images of researchers and others involved in supervising animal research could jeopardize their safety.

Last September, PETA members protested at the center of the UMass campus alongside Massachusetts-born actor Casey Affleck, a longtime supporter of the organization.

“You don’t have to be a scientist to know right from wrong,” Affleck said last Sept. 13. “The bottom line is the animals used here in these unnecessary and cruel experiments suffer. That should be enough to tell us that we have to find another way to do this research.”

In past years, PETA has also fought UMass on animal research from other UMass professors. The organization claimed one researcher, Melinda Novak, of UMass’ department of psychological and brain sciences, was involved in inducing self-injurious behavior in monkeys. PETA Vice President Alka Chandna described the research in a statement to the Daily Hampshire Gazette as “creating trauma simply to study it.”

Novak said her goal was to study the conditions of monkeys living in research centers to identify and prevent self-harming behaviors. The labs she examined were not at UMass, and the animals were already engaging in worrying behavior — pacing, pulling out hair, poking their own eyes — before the study began, she said.

“There was no experiment here,” Novak told the Gazette, “and I have never, ever, ever in my entire life ever run a project to make animals have these behavior problems, then somehow study it.”

After a years-long legal battle, UMass agreed in 2020 to redact records and videos of Novak’s research and turn them over to PETA. The organization published portions of the records it received.

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