They've acquired a small number of male and female chimpanzees to investigate the effects of head trauma in a controlled setting. Each chimp will receive a number of strikes to the head, each about a minute apart, with half of them being struck until they lose consciousness. The number of strikes can then be correlated with latent brain damage like CTE. PETA has expressed no interest one way or the other, surprisingly. Because these experiments are of course highly entertaining, they are recorded and published here to recoup some of the costs. Apparently it also receives sponsorship from a couple of ambulance chasers.
In all seriousness - unethical, but they'll get excellent data from it and hopefully in the long run it'll help prevent many more cases of CTE than it causes. Personally I find it hard to care more than the willing subjects, who seem to be motivated by fame and fortune. I would be indignant if there weren't a few research papers about this, down the line. Christ though, how barbaric. They get tons of comments about the obvious CTE risk, but to me this does seem like an attempt to gather data without having to answer to some board of ethics.
