Gov. Kotek Is Right to Urge OHSU Primate Center Closure: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
March 28, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from primate scientist and PETA Science Advisor Lisa Jones-Engel, PhD., regarding Governor Tina Kotek urging Oregon Health and Science University to close the Oregon National Primate Research Center:

Governor Kotek is right to listen to tens of thousands of Oregonians and call on OHSU to wrap up its primate research program and shut down the Oregon National Primate Research Center. As a primate scientist who spent 14 years at the comparable facility at the University of Washington, I know firsthand that this move is long overdue—for the university, for science, and for the thousands of monkeys suffering behind closed doors. For decades, OHSU has made sweeping claims about its monkey research being critical to human health, repeatedly touting supposed breakthroughs—vaccines, treatments, and cures—that consistently failed to translate from monkeys to humans. After decades of research and hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars, it has little to show beyond archaic, wasteful experiments—frightening monkeys with Mr. Potato Head dolls, electro-ejaculation, addicting them to alcohol and THC, and other studies that have done nothing to meaningfully advance medicine. Beyond the waste and ethical concerns, these facilities pose a serious public health risk. The primate center has a troubling history of disease outbreaks, including tuberculosis and other pathogens that can spread from monkeys to humans. Harvard recognized over a decade ago that this model was a dead end and shut down its primate center. PETA—whose 91,000 members and supporters in Oregon stand firmly against this cruelty—urges OHSU to follow Harvard’s example and embrace innovative, effective, and ethical science.  

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.