Oregon Legislators Tie Primate Center Closure Plan to State, Federal Funding: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
June 30, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding the budget note passed Saturday by the Oregon Legislature requiring that the Oregon National Primate Research Center provide a plan to close its facility if it receives or uses even one penny of direct or indirect state money, or if the National Institutes of Health slashes its funding by 25 percent:

PETA celebrates every member of the state legislature who listened to their constituents’ concerns and voted to hold Oregon Health & Science University accountable for the cruelty, negligence, and collapse unfolding at its monkey lab. PETA supporters across Oregon contacted their representatives about closing the center, dozens spoke against the facility at a recent legislative hearing, and thousands of Oregonians asked that the violation-plagued laboratory be shut down. While a plan to close the facility is a critical first step—monkeys are still trapped in barren cages, their bodies used, their minds broken, their lives stolen in the name of failed science. PETA will continue to work toward the center’s closure until the doors are shut, and all the animals are retired to appropriate sanctuaries where, at last, they can experience safety, dignity, and some measure of peace.

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.