OHSU Board Meeting Today Considered Primate Center Closure: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
January 22, 2026

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding public statements at the special Oregon Health & Science University board meeting today to consider the Oregon National Primate Research Center’s report on its possible closure—a report mandated by last year’s budget note from the Oregon legislature:

Seemingly every speaker in favor of keeping the Oregon National Primate Research Center open, despite escalating costs and the irrelevance of experiments on monkeys, gets a paycheck from the center and holds a vested interest in keeping it open. No one calling for its closure held such an interest. In fact, some in the animal protection community may be unemployed if the center closes. As physicians, neuroscientists, and other experts testified today, the primate center has outlived whatever scientific usefulness there may have been 50 years ago. If the university’s goal truly is conducting cutting-edge research and benefiting patients, closure of the primate center is the only option. 

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.