In a colossal win for monkeys and science, the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) board of directors voted unanimously to pass a resolution today authorizing negotiations with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to end experiments on monkeys and transition the federally funded Oregon National Primate Center to a sanctuary for the more than 5,000 monkeys it now holds. This follows sustained pressure from PETA, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), Oregon legislators, Governor Tina Kotek, and tens of thousands of Oregonians.

During these discussions, the primate center will stop breeding monkeys as OHSU works with NIH to devise a plan to end the torment and killing of 1,200 monkeys a year in pointless tests.

PETA is grateful to Oregon Health and Science University President Shereef Elnahal, the university board of directors, Governor Kotek, Oregon state legislators, the National Institutes of Health, and all of you, our supporters, for bringing about this monumental victory.

The announcement follows months of ramped-up pressure from PETA and Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), and years of campaigning by PETA. Recently,

The Oregon legislature passed a bill mandating closure of the facility if NIH funding dropped by 25 percent or if any state funding is used by the center. Dozens of PETA supporters spoke at a legislative hearing and thousands contacted their state legislators and the governor, who subsequently called for closure.

PETA formally requested that the Oregon Health Authority condition a merger between the university and Legacy Health on the closure of the primate center and launched an onslaught of social media ads.

PCRM sponsored hundreds of TV and radio ads using video and audio from PETA’s two undercover investigations into the primate center.

PETA brought to Portland its art installation “How the Other Half Lives,” a giant pair of binoculars that shows video of monkeys circling their tiny cages inside laboratories juxtaposed with troops of monkeys living happily in their natural forest homes.

PETA supporters projected a giant banner made of lights over the busy I-5 highway demanding, “CLOSE OHSU MONKEY LAB.”

For the last several months, PETA supporters have greeted NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya at his public appearances with signs saying, “NIH, Close the Monkey Labs.”

PETA on the Vanguard

The announcement ends 60 years of wasteful tests in which experimenters forcefully pumped nicotine into monkeys, fed pregnant monkeys high-fat diets before killing their infants, repeatedly electro-ejaculated male monkeys, addicted monkeys to alcohol, and subjected monkeys to full-body irradiation, among numerous other cruelties.

For 20 years, PETA has been the tip of the spear lodged in the ribcage of the primate center, exposing the violence against monkeys. We successfully sued the university to obtain video of experiments in which pregnant monkeys were fed junk food and their babies were deliberately intimidated in an “intruder test.”

PETA conducted two undercover investigations of the primate center, exposing violations and terrified monkeys.

The primate center has violated the federal Animal Welfare Act dozens of times. In April, PETA urged the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate multiple violations at the university, including a Japanese macaque who was denied veterinary care after developing sepsis and died.

Winds of Change

The transition is representative of the sea change against animal experimentation in biomedical research, a heartening trend PETA has long advocated. In April, NIH announced a shift in funding away from experiments on animals toward non-animal research methods.

In doing so, NIH took a page from PETA scientists’ Research Modernization Now, our practical guide to shifting resources into cutting-edge research, adopting several recommendations, including expanding funding, training, and infrastructure for non-animal methods and mitigating bias towards experiments on animals in NIH grant review panels, a problem that PETA scientists recently exposed in a first-of-its-kind study.

What You Can Do

Please thank OHSU, NIH, and Gov. Kotek for sparing these monkeys and supporting modern, animal-free, human-relevant research. Please send thank you e-mails to the OHSU board at ohsuboard@ohsu.edu, and then go to the social media pages of the OHSU president, NIH and Gov. Kotek to leave additional thanks!

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