Momentum for Monkeys! PETA’s Push to Close Primate Labs Gains Ground

Step inside (not that you are actually allowed to) the Oregon National Primate Research Center, run by Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), and you would see how experimenters have given massive doses of cannabis edibles to and then electro-ejaculated frightened primates, made pregnant monkeys drink alcohol and then cut out and killed their babies, torn infant monkeys away from their mothers and terrorized them by having masked intruders stare them down, and more – and yet they have the nerve to call it “science.” These atrocities should all be illegal, and the experimenters jailed, but they are funded by the National Institutes of Health and others!

That monkey Abu Ghraib is one of seven national primate research centers across the US – relics of the ignorant past, created by Congress decades ago in a crude attempt to mimic human diseases in our fellow primates. They rake in tens of millions of dollars every year from the US government specifically to torture monkeys yet have failed to produce the marketable vaccines they were set up to develop – while killing thousands of monkeys. PETA has set out to decommission all of these dens of despair.

Letting the Public See for Themselves

Our 7-foot-tall “binoculars” traveled to the Oregon university’s campus, the state capitol, and other locales to let people contrast monkeys living happily in their natural homes in one lens with a close-up view of the privation they endure in laboratory cages through the other. Over Portland’s busiest freeway, our neon sign lit up the night with a searing demand: “CLOSE OHSU MONKEY LAB.” Powerful ads saturated the airwaves, informing millions of viewers about what PETA’s undercover investigations of the primate center had found, including shrieking babies torn from their mothers, monkeys scalded to death by a cage-cleaning system, and other cruelty.

Action and Words

Thousands of outraged Oregonians wrote to their legislators. And just two weeks after the ads aired, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek called on the university to wind down operations and close the monkey laboratory. This had the primate center officials shaking in their lab coats, warning their staff that Kotek has tremendous “sway” and “leverage.” Still, they fought on to stop closure. Next, dozens of inspired PETA supporters testified at the state capitol and met with legislative aides, rallying allies and generating still more support for shutting down the laboratory. Workers inside the laboratory saw this and came to PETA to report that they were being instructed to stop documenting violations so that government inspectors – and PETA – wouldn’t find out that injured monkeys weren’t getting veterinary care, escapes were frequent, and deaths were going unreported.

“I ask right now, to the camera, to each camera, shut it down.” – Primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall when asked if the Oregon primate center should close.

The scandal hit the news, and the legislators heard. Just days later, they passed a measure that the primate center must close if it uses even one penny of state money or if its National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding drops by 25% – which could happen, since the federal government slashed funding to the NIH (see this article for more on that), derailing experimenters’ gravy train. It ain’t over ’til it’s over, but the fight is well and truly on, and in the end, we will win. Please join in!

First, Harvard – Next, All the Rest!

With public outrage sky-high and funding plummeting, we’re urging OHSU to read the writing on the wall, just as Harvard
University did after PETA’s campaign against its New England Primate Research Center. Embroiled in controversy over its systemic mistreatment of monkeys, including the deaths of 12 by dehydration, Harvard did the right thing and shut down the primate center. We’re also waking up legislators to see that organs-on-chips, 3-D human cell cultures, computational modeling, AI-driven drug discovery, and other advanced research tools can do what experiments on animals never could: provide accurate, human relevant results and breakthroughs that are truly lifesaving.