‘PETA v. Oregon Health & Science University’ Case Summary
Case Name: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Inc. v. Oregon Health & Science University
Index Number: 20-cv-15874
Court: Circuit Court of Oregon for Multnomah County
In April 2020, PETA, represented by counsel from Angeli Law Group LLC, filed suit after Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) refused to comply with public records requests for videos and photographs from taxpayer-funded experiments on prairie voles in which experimenters paired the animals for just one week before separating them, having them consume the equivalent of 15 bottles of wine a day, subjecting them to a battery of tests, and then killing them. PETA filed suit based on its belief that OHSU had falsely claimed that the videos—the experiment’s central data—weren’t in its possession, that it didn’t own them, and that if any videos had existed, they had been destroyed by another government entity.
Discovery Reveals New Falsehoods and Wrongdoing
During depositions, the lead experimenter, Andrey Ryabinin, offered a new reason for the videos’ purported nonexistence: He claimed that he had told his staff to delete them rather than allowing them to fall into what he had described as the “wrong hands.” Ryabinin also revealed the existence of previously unacknowledged photographs directly responsive to PETA’s public records requests. OHSU’s counsel later informed PETA that its own forensic examination of the laboratory computer had turned up no videos.
OHSU moved to dismiss based on the purported nonexistence of the videos and lost. PETA amended its lawsuit in October 2020 in response to these revelations. Eventually, however—after more foot-dragging by OHSU—we obtained the laboratory computer through discovery and saw all the videos in question sitting in folders on its desktop.
Discovery also revealed that at least three OHSU police officers, including the police chief, had received near-daily intelligence-style updates on PETA’s activities from a company called Information Network Associates (INA). Among other “threat” updates, INA reported to OHSU on PETA’s blog posts and social media activity. Because Oregon law prohibits law-enforcement agencies from collecting such information unless it relates directly to a criminal investigation, PETA amended its lawsuit once again in November 2021.
PETA Wins at Trial
In July 2022, after a multiweek trial, the Multnomah County Circuit Court ruled in PETA’s favor on our primary claims. Specifically, the court ruled that OHSU’s conduct amounted to “unreasonable” and “undue” delay under Oregon public records law. The court also agreed with us that OHSU had illegally surveilled PETA and required that OHSU destroy the information about our constitutionally protected activities.
The court also found that OHSU’s actions with respect to the existence of the videos were sanctionable discovery misconduct. As a result, the court imposed statutory penalties on OHSU and ordered it to pay legal fees reasonably incurred by PETA. In June 2022, the court ordered OHSU to pay PETA $434,133.
An appeal of the court’s rulings by OHSU remains pending.
