Progress! Lawmakers Inch Closer to Shutting Down Oregon’s Failed Primate Center
Huge progress! PETA’s campaign to shut down the cruel Oregon National Primate Research Center has netted a significant and historic win that ensures the facility can’t use a single penny of state money to run its useless monkey laboratories.
The Oregon Legislature recently passed a measure requiring that the primate center provide a detailed plan to close its facility by 2026 if:
- it receives or uses any state money, or
- the National Institutes of Health slashes its funding by 25% of 2024 levels.
This marks the first time lawmakers have conditioned the primate center in the state’s budget and shows Oregon legislators’ overwhelming lack of support for the violation-plagued laboratory, which imprisons more than 5,000 monkeys and has a long history of shirking state and federal animal welfare laws.
The move follows months of relentless pressure from PETA and our dedicated supporters in Oregon. Hundreds of them contacted their state representatives, urging them to shut down the primate center, and dozens of Oregonians spoke against the facility at a recent legislative hearing.
PETA also brought our “How the Other Half Lives” exhibition—featuring a 7.5-foot-tall pair of binoculars that reveal the harrowing conditions monkeys trapped in laboratories endure— straight to the Oregon State Capitol, meeting with local representatives and sharing compelling information on why the primate center needs to be shut down.
What You Can Do
While a plan to close the facility is a great first step, PETA will not rest until each one of the nation’s seven failed National Primate Research Centers are shut down. Please join us by taking action to close the monkey prisons!
If you’re in the U.S., please contact your members of Congress and urge them to shut off the funding to the seven National Primate Research Centers TODAY:
And everyone can take action to urge officials at Oregon Health & Science University, which runs the primate center, to shut it down:
