Leaked Names Reveal Stacked OHSU Animal Oversight Committee: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
April 3, 2026

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding the illegal composition of the Oregon Health & Science University’s (OHSU) Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, which reviews and approves proposed experiments on animals for all university laboratories. OHSU keeps the members’ names secret, despite the public’s right to know. But they have just been leaked to PETA, which found that 10 of the 15 members are tied to the Oregon National Primate Research Center, in violation of the federal Animal Welfare Act. It also appears that there is no non-scientist member, as required by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which funds most of the experiments at the university:

It turns out that OHSU’s animal experimentation oversight committee is a 15-member rubber-stamp club that is illegally stacked with members linked to the primate center and makes a mockery of the law. Any experiments approved by this purposely improperly constituted committee should be immediately suspended. This federally mandated body is required to provide oversight without conflicts of interest to ensure that all experiments on animals are approved, and conducted, in compliance with the law. The exact opposite appears to be happening here, and PETA today filed formal complaints with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and NIH. 

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.