NEW SHOCKING VIDEO: Days-Old Monkeys Tormented in OHSU-Supplied Laboratory

For Immediate Release:
October 12, 2026

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Never-before-seen video obtained by PETA and released today shows infant monkeys who were taken from their mothers and subjected to neurological experiments at the University of Washington’s (UW) Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC)—which Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) has for years supplied with monkeys, including newborns.

The disturbing footage, obtained through a public records request, shows tiny monkeys who were exposed to a neurotoxin in utero, taken from their mothers after birth, and subjected to repeated neurological tests—starting when some were just two days old. Deprived of the necessary nurturing they would receive from their mothers, the frightened infants cling to blankets and suck on their fingers.

The footage shows experimenters shaving the newborn babies’ heads, attaching electrodes to their skin, and putting them through test after test to assess whether the neurotoxin damaged their developing brains enough to make them tremble. The experiments continued for months and sometimes years.

OHSU has a history of supplying baby monkeys to UW for experiments. Records show that OHSU has continued to send days-old monkeys from its primate center to WaNPRC for infectious disease experiments, separating the babies from their mothers shortly after birth and transporting them from Oregon to Washington.

Experimenters attach electrodes to a baby monkey’s head as part of a cruel and misguided attempt to understand how a neurotoxin affects human brains. Obtained by PETA through a public records request.

“As long as OHSU keeps breeding and experimenting on monkeys, babies will continue to be taken from their mothers and condemned to lives of isolation and excruciating experiments until they’re ultimately killed—both in Washington and Oregon,” says PETA Senior Science Advisor on Primate Experimentation Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel. “OHSU already claimed it will focus on non-animal research and reduce its primate center, but it must focus on closure and immediately end breeding and selling monkeys.”

In nature, macaques live in close social groups, and infants rely on their mothers for nursing, protection, warmth, and constant physical contact. The new footage provides a rare and heartbreaking look at what life can mean for monkeys born into the national primate research center system: separation from family, confinement, repeated painful experiments, and death.

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.